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PROCEEDINGS, . 

AND 

ADDRESS 

OP /THE 

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DELEGATES FRIENDLY 


TO THE ELECTION OF 


ANDREW JACKSON 


tfO THE NEST PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES* 

ASSEMBLED AT CONCORD, 


JUNE 11 AND 12, 1828, 


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PROCEEDINGS 


OF THE 

REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION. 


At a State Convention of Delegates 
friendly to the election of Gen. AN¬ 
DREW JACKSON to the Presidency, 
holden at Concord on the 11th day of 
June 1828 ; the Convention was called 
to order at ten o’clock by Hon. D. M. 
Durell, who observed that the right 
of assembling together and discussing 
questions of great National concern 
is one of the plainest and most sacred 
privileges of Freemen.— \nd we should 
esteem ourselves unworthy this high- 
privilege, were we meanly to shrink 
from its exercise when a proper occa¬ 
sion for that exercise should be pre¬ 
sented. The public [said Judge D.] 
are the best judges of such an occa¬ 
sion ;—and if I do not now mistake the 
indications oP public opinion, such an 
occasion does now present itself, in re¬ 
ference to the approaching Presiden¬ 
tial election. Delegated by our fellow 
citizens, friendly to the election of 
Andrew Jackson, to meet at this place 
for the purpose of forming an Electo¬ 
ral ticket,to be presented to the people 
of this State, and to transact such other 
business as may come before us—we 
have come up hither; And the time 
designated for our assembling, hav¬ 
ing arrived, I now request that you 
will come to brder,—and take the liber¬ 
ty of nominating Gen. Dinsmoor of 
Keene as Chairman of this Convention. 

This nomination was voted, and Gen. 
Dinsmoor accordingly took the chair. 

The Convention then proceeded to 
the choice of a President by ballot, 
and Hon. WILLI \M BADGER of Gil- 
manton was elected. On being con¬ 
ducted to ths chair, Judge Badger ad¬ 
dressed the Chairman as follows : 

u Mr. Chairman —You inform me 
that I am elected to preside over the 
deliberations of this very respectable 
Convention. Permit me, sir, frank¬ 
ly to acknowledge my gratitude for 


this distinguished expression of its con¬ 
fidence, and 1 have only to regret that 
the choice has not devolved on one w ho 
would have discharged the duty with 
more honor to himself and more satis¬ 
faction to the Convention. But sir, 
such qualifications as I may possess, 
shall cheerfully be devoted to its ser¬ 
vice.” ~ 

On motion, Francis N. Fisk of Con¬ 
cord was elected Secretary, and Dud¬ 
ley S. Palmer of Kxeter and Thomas 
E. Sawyer, of Dover, Assistant Secre¬ 
taries. 

On motion of Mr Greenleaf of Ports¬ 
mouth, Messrs. Plumer of Epping, 
Palmer of Dover, Gibson of Frances- 
town, and Woodbury of Bath, were ap¬ 
pointed a committee to receive and ex¬ 
amine the credentials of members, and 
report thereon. 

On motion of Mr. Nye of Claremont, 
Messrs. Cilley of Epsom, Rust of 
Wolfborough, Bailey of Weare, Syl¬ 
vester of Charlestown, ami Carter of 
Hanover, were appointed a committee 
to nominate to the Convention a com¬ 
mittee to consist of twenty-five, who 
shall consider and report what business 
it is expedient should be acted upon 
by the Convention, and the mode of 
proceeding. 

Mr. Cilley, from the committee ap¬ 
pointed to nominate the committee on 
business to be acted upon, reported 
the following gentlemen, viz. 

Messrs. Abner P. Stinson, Abner 
Greenleaf, Moses Dudley, Isaac Hill, 
Daniel Plumer, Daniel M. Durell, Wil¬ 
liam Prescott, Paul Wentworth, Samu¬ 
el Cate, George L. Whitehouse, Thom¬ 
as Chandler, Jesse Bowers, David 
Stiles, Stephen Peabody, Edward 
Gould, Silas Angier, David Farnsworth, 
Ithiel Silsbee, Aldis Lovell, James 
Chandler, James T. Woodbury, Na« 




4 


thaniel S, Berry, Joseph Merrill, Thom¬ 
as Peverly, jr, and JohnH. White. 

Which was accepted, 

The Convention then adjourned to 
4 o’clock, P. M., at which time it was 
again called to order. 

Mr. Palmer, from the committee ap¬ 
pointed to receive a id examine the cre¬ 
dentials of delegates, reported the fol¬ 
lowing gentlemen as entitled to seats in 
this Convention. 

Rockingham County. 

Brentwood, Jeremiah Rowe. Deer¬ 
field, Thomas Jenness, Samuel Collins. 
East-Kingston and South-Hampton, Jer¬ 
emiah Morrill. Epping, Daniel Plund¬ 
er. Exeter, Dudley S. Palmer, Timo¬ 
thy Gridley. Greenland, Thomas Ber- 
r J’> j f -» [sub. William L. Brackett.] 
Hampstead, Samuel Marshall, Hamp¬ 
ton, Tristram Shaw. Kensington, Sam¬ 
uel Shaw. Kingston, Robert Aver. 
Londonderry,Ebenezer Whittier. New¬ 
castle, Hall J. Locke. Newington, 
James Pickering. New-Market, Ab¬ 
ner P. Stinson. Newtown, John Bart¬ 
lett. North-Hampton, Morris Lamp¬ 
rey. Northwood, Nathaniel Durgin. 
Nottingham, Samuel Dame. Atkinson 
and Plaistow, Richard Greenough. 
Poplin, Lyman B. Haskell. Ports¬ 
mouth, Abner Greenleaf, Daniel P. 
Droune,William Claggett, John Leigh¬ 
ton, Samuel Cushman. Raymond, Mo¬ 
ses Dudley. Rye, Amos Seavey. San- 
down, Samuel Pillsbury. Seahrook, 
Jacob Smith. Strathgm, John Scam-, 
tnon. 

Strafforh County. 

Alton, Samuel Cate. Rarnstead, I- 
saac O. Barnes,; N. T. George. Bar¬ 
rington, John M’Daniels, jr. Brook¬ 
field, John T, Churchill. Burton and 
Chatham, Jonathan K. Eastman. Cen¬ 
tre-Harbor, Simon Drake. Conway, 
Thomas S, Abbot, Dover, Daniel M, 
iDurell, Thomas Handerson, Thomas 
E. Sawyer, Barnabas H. Palmer. Dur¬ 
ham, George Hull, Andrew G. Smith. 
Eaton. Joseph R. Hunt. Effingham, 
John Colby. Gilman :c n, William Badg-, 
er, William Prescott, Charles Parker. 
Farmington, Georgo L. Whitehouse. 
Gilford, Lyman B. Walker. Lee, Ed-, 
ward B, Nealley. Madbury, Samuel 
Cfies.ley, Meredith, Stephen Gale, I- 
saac Currier. Middleton, Jacob R. Pils- 
**ury, Milton, Daniel Hayes, jr. Mouk 


tonborough, Thomas Shannon. New- 
Durham, Reuben Hayes, jr. New- 
Hampton, John Harper. Ossipee, Peas- 
lee Badger. Rochester, Isaac Jenbess, 
Charles Dennett, Sandbornton, Jose ph 
W. Clement, John Carr. Sandwich, 
Paul Wentworth, Neal M’Gaffey. Som- 
ersvvorth, Benjamin Hanson, jr., James 
Martin. Strafford, Amos Tebbetts, Sam¬ 
uel H, Hodgdon. Tamworth, Lewis 
Folsom. Tuftonborough, John Pea- 
vey. Wakefield, Richard Russell,. 
Wolfborough, Henry B. Rust. 

Merrimack County 

Allenstown, Andrew O. Evans. An¬ 
dover, Joseph C.. Thompson. Boscaw- 
on, John Stevens, Joseph Couch, jun. 
Bow, William Messer. Bradlord, Dan¬ 
iel Millen. Canterbury, Joseph Ly- 
ford. Chichester, James Blake. Con¬ 
cord. Isaac Hill, Francis N. Fisk. Dun¬ 
barton, Edward Gould. Epsom, Daniel 
Cilley. Fishersfield, Israel Putnam 
Henniker, Oliver Noyes, Joshua Colby. 
Hooksett, Asa Sawyer. Hopkinton, 
Nathaniel Knowlton, Stephen Darling. 
Loudon, Stephen Cate. New-London, 
Moses S. Harvey, Northfield, James, 
Cochran. Pembroke, Aaron Whiite- 
more. Pittsfield, John Jenness. Salis¬ 
bury, William Pingree. Sutton, Reu¬ 
ben Porter. Warner, Joshua Sawyer, 
Jonathan E. Dalton. Wilmot, Josiah 
Stearns. 

Hillsborough County. 

Amherst, Timothy Danforth. Antrim, 
Luke Woodbury. Bedford, Ebenezer 
French. Brookline, Benjamin Shat- 
tuck. Deering, YVilliam Mc’Keen. 
Dunstable Jesse Bowers, D. H. Dean. 
Frances!own, John Gibson. Goffstown, 
David Barr, Noyes Poor. Greenfield, 
William Whittemore, Hancock, Lem¬ 
uel Lakin. Hillsborough, Samuel Kim¬ 
ball. Hollis, Joseph Greeley. Litch¬ 
field,Abel Quigg. Lyndeborough, Ne- 
hemiah Boutwell. Manchester,Ephrnim 
Stevens, jun. Mason, Josiah Russell. 
Merrimack, Samuel M’Conihe. Mil¬ 
ford, Stephen Peabody. Mont-Vernon, 
Nathaniel Bruce. New-Boston, Sam¬ 
uel Trull, Elias Dickey (sub.) Pelham, 
Asa Gage. Peterborough, Daniel 
Robbe. Sharon, James Law. Temple, 
David Stiles. Weare, Amos W. Bailey, 
Hugh Jameson, Job Sargeant (sub.) 
Wilton, Oliver Whiling. Windsor, Jo¬ 
seph Chapman, jr. 


s 


Cheshire County . 

Alstead, James Chandler. Chester- 
held, Ezekiel P. Pierce, Dublin, Na¬ 
hum Warren. Gilsum, Aaron Day. 
Jeffrey, Benjamin Cutler. Keene, Silas 
Angier, Samuel Dinsmoor, Marlow, 
William Lewis. Nelson, Oliver Heald. 
Richmond, Joseph Weeks. Stoddard, 
Francis Matson. Swanzey, Josiah 
Woodward. Walpole. Aldis Lovell. 

Sullivan County. 

Acworth, Ithiel Silsbee. Charles¬ 
town, Henry H. Sylvester. Clare¬ 
mont, Jonathan Nye, 'Timothy S. 
Gleason. Cornish, Eleazer Jackson. 
Croydon, John Barton. Goshen, Vir¬ 
gil Chase. Grantham, Robert Scott. 
Langdon, Samuel Egerton. Newport, 
Cyrus Barton. Plainfield, Benjamin 
Cutler. Springfield, Levi Hill. U. 
nuy, Harvey Huntoon. Washington, 
David Farnsworth. Wendell, Samuel 
Rogers. 

Grafton County. 

Alexandria,Samuel Cole. Bath,James 
T. Woodbury. Bethlehem and Franco¬ 
nia, N. Knox. Bridgewater, Joseph 
Prescott. Bristol, K. S. Berry. Camp- 
ton, Daniel Souihmayd. Danbury and 
Orange, Samuel Clifford. Enfield, Jo¬ 
seph Merrill. Grafton, Peter Sweatt. 
Groton, Jonathan Kimball. Hanover, 
Jacob Carter, John Durkee. Haver¬ 
hill, Samuel Page. Hebron, Stephen 
Pilsbury. Landaff, Daniel Clark. Leba¬ 
non, Calvin Benton, Samuel Woodbury. 
Lime, Lewis Cook. Lisbon, Cyrus Bark¬ 
ley. Littleton, William Barkley. Ly¬ 
man, John Moulton, jun, New-Ches- 
ter, Samuel Murray. Orford; Henry S. 
Perrin. Peeling, Samuel Newell. 
Piermont, James Kent. Plymouth, 
Benjamin Bailey. Rumney, Simeon Ste¬ 
vens, jun. Thornton, Bradley V. Web¬ 
ster. Warren, Ja,cob Patch, Went¬ 
worth, Aaron Currier. 

Coos County. 

Adams and Bartlett,Stephen Meserve. 
Colebrook and Columbia, Lewis Loomis. 
Jefferson, William Chamberlain. Lan¬ 
caster, John H. White. Northumber¬ 
land, Thomas Peverly, jun. Stevvarts- 
town, Jeremiah Lovering. Whitefield 
John M. Gove, 

Which report was accepted. 

Mr Durell, from the committee ap¬ 
pointed to consider what Vusin^ss is 


necessary to be acted upor, made the 
following report : 

The committee appoint for the 
purpose of taking into con deration 
the various subjects which h may be 
exoedient to be acted upon by this con¬ 
vention, and to report what in their o- 
pinion may be necessary to be done, 
and the course which is most expedient 
to be pursued to carry the same into 
effect, a>k leave to report; 

That they recommend to the con¬ 
vention to select eight suitable candi¬ 
dates for Electors of President and Vice 
President; and the whole delegation 
from each of the eight counties in this 
state shall each constitute a separate 
committe* to select one candidate from 
each of said Counties. 

They -also recommend to the Con¬ 
vention to proceed to the nomination of 
a candidate for Governor of this state 
for the year ensuing the March election 
in 1829, and that the nomination be 
made by ballot of the Convention. 

They further recommend it as expe¬ 
dient to go into the nomination of six 
candidates for members of Congress, 
and that the candidates be reported to 
the Convention by committees, of the 
delegates from the Counties of Rock¬ 
ingham, Strafford, Merrimack and Hills¬ 
borough, one each ; from the Counties 
of Cheshire and Sullivan, one ; ar.d 
from the Counties of Grafton and Coos 
one. 

They further recommend, that a 
committee of ten be raised to report.^ 
an Address to the people of this State 
in relation to the election of President,, 
and that a committee of ten be raisedt 
to report resolutions to be adopted by 
the Convention. 

They further recommend, that it is 
expedient to raise a committee of ten 
to report ways and means to pay any 
incidental expenses of this Convention, 
and for the publication of so much of its 
proceedings as may be deemed expedi¬ 
ent. 

Which report was accepted. 

On motion of Mr. Sylvester , the Con¬ 
vention proceeded to the choice of a 
committee to report an Address to the 
People on the subject of the next Pre¬ 
sidential Election ; and Messrs. Hill of 
Concord, Claggett and Cushman of 


6 


Portsmouth, Durell of Dover, Walker 
of Gilford, Bowers of Dunstable, Dins- 
moor of Keene, Nye of Claremont, 
Durkee of Hanover, and Barton of 
Newport, were appointed. 

On motion, Messrs. Greenleaf of 
Portsmouth, Palmer of Exeter, Barnes 
of Barnstead, Prescott of Gilmanton, 
Nealley of Lee, Peabody of Milford, 
French of Bedford, Matson of Stoddard, 
Woodbury of Bath, and Peverly of 
Northumberland, were appointed a 
committee to draft resolutions. 

On motion of Air. Dinsmoor , the Con¬ 
vention proceeded by ballot to select a 
.candidate to be supported as Governor 
of this State at the next annual elec¬ 
tion. Whole number of ballots 188. 
Don. Benjamin Bierce had 160; Hon. 
Matthew Harvey 27 ; scattering l.Hon. 
BENJAMIN PIERCE having a majority 
of the ballots, was declared the candid¬ 
ate. 

On motion of Mr. Greenleaf, Messrs. 
Drowne of Portsmouth, Badger of Os- 
sipee, Whittemore of Greenfield, and 
Boutwell of Lyndeborough, were ap¬ 
pointed a commiltee to wait on Gen. 
Pierce at his residence, and inform 
him of the foregoing nomination, and 
receive his answer, and report to the 
Convention. 

On motion of Mr. Nye, Messrs. Whit¬ 
temore of Pembroke, Wentworth of 
Sandwich, Gale of Meredith, Peavy of 
Tuttonborough, jEocke of New-Castle, 
Danforth of Amherst, Stevens of Man¬ 
chester, Weeks of Richmond, Angier 
of Keene, Merrill of Enfield, were ap¬ 
pointed a committee to report ways 
and means to pay the incidental expen¬ 
ses of the Convention, and for the pub¬ 
lication of its proceedengs. 

Adjourned to meet at ten o’clock to¬ 
morrow morning. 

Thursday, June 12, 1828. 

Met according to adjournment. 

The County Committees reported 
severally as follows: 

Candidates for Electors. 
Rockingham, JOHN HARVEY. 
Strafford, BENNING M. BE AN. 
Merrimack, WILLIAM PICKERING. 
Hillsborough, BENIAMIN PIERCE. 
Cheshire, AARON MATSON. 
Sullivan, JONATHAN NYE. 
Grafton, STEPH’ N P.WEBSTER 
Coos, MOSES WHITE. 


Which several reports were read 
and accepted. 

The same Committees severally re¬ 
ported as follows: 

Candidates for Representatives to Con - 
gress. 

Rockingham, JOHN BRODHEAD. 
Strafford, JOSEPH HAMMONS. 

Merrimack, JONATHAN H ARVEY. 
Hillsborough, THOMAS CHANDLER. 
Cheshire, HENKY HUBBARD. 

Graft. & Coos, JOHN W. WEEKS. 

Which several reports were read and 
accepted. 

Mr. Greenleaf, from the committee 
appointed for that purpose, reported 
the following resolutions: 

1. Resolved , That we entertain an 
exalted opinion of the talents, integrity, 
clearness of perception and firmness of 
purpose, which have characterised 
ANDRBEW JACK ON : that we 
deem him eminently qualified to fill the 
exalted station of Chief Magistrate of 
these United States, and will contribute 
our best endeavours to promote his 
election. 

2. Resolved , That the distinguished 
talents and eminent services of JOHN 
C. CALHOUN, Vice President of the 
United States, render him highly de¬ 
serving the continued confidence of the 
people, and we wall make every hon¬ 
orable effort to effect bis re-election. 

3. Resolved , That the public services 
of the Hon. Levi Woodbury, our Senator 
in Congress, since the commencement 
of his term of service, are held in high 
estimation by the Democratic Republi¬ 
cans of this State, and entitle him to 
their approbation and thanks. 

4. Resolved , That the Hon. Jonathan 
Harvey, one of our Representatives in 
Congress, has in a very faithful manner 
performed his official duties, and de¬ 
serves the renewed expression of the 
confidence of his constituents. 

5. Resolved , That in our opinion the 
present administration of the United 
States has squandered the public money 
to a large amount ; that it is charac¬ 
terised by a loose construction of the 
Constitution, and has shaped its whole 
course with a single eye to its security 
in power. 

6. Resolved , That the attempt at 
what is called an amalgamation of pe- 


1 


liticnl parties is, in our opinion, but a 
subtle attempt, originating with the 
fallen federalists,to divide and thus con¬ 
quer the Democratic party. 

7 Resolved* That the toast of Josiah 
Quincy, the friend and relative of John 
Q. Adams (the same Josiah Quincy, 
who in Congress moved the impeach¬ 
ment of Thomas Jefferson) given in 
Boston immediately after the election 
of John Q. Adams to the Presidency, to 
Wit ; “ the political regeneration : those , 
•who fell with Adams the first, shall rise 
with Adams the second ”—ought to open 
the eyes of every sincere friend of the 
democratic cause. 

8. Resolved , That we would pardon 
private injuries; but the conduct of the 
federal party during the last war, in 
aiding and assisting a foreign foe a- 
gain*t our common country, we never 
can forget, and never will forgive while 
such conduct is attempted to be justifi¬ 
ed. 

9. Resolved, That as Andrew Jackson, 
at the last Presidential election, with 
no concert of action, but by an un¬ 
prompted feeling of preference, re¬ 
ceived fifteen electoral votes more, 
than any other candidate (which num¬ 
ber of electors represented full half a 
miilionof people) we speak the truth 
when we say he w<ts then the candid¬ 
ate of the people, and we reason right¬ 
ly wl.en we conclude he will be such 
at the coming election. 

10. Resolved, That Mr. Adams pro¬ 
bably gave his unbiassed opinion of 
Andrew Jackson, when in his reply to 
the committee that informed him ot 
his election to the Presidency, he spoke 
of J ackson, as one “justly enjoying, in 
u an eminent degree, the public favour, 
“ and of whose worth, talents and ser- 
u vices, no one entertained a higher 
u and more respectful sense, than him- 
“selt, and whose name is closely asso- 
ct dated with the glory of the nation,” 
the same Andrew Jackson, whom Mr. 
Adams’ friends with characteristic con¬ 
sistency now denounce, as a murderer, 
adulterer and tyrant. 

The resolutions were read, and u- 
nanimously adopted. 

Mr. Drowne, from the committee ap¬ 
pointed to wait on the Hon. BENJA¬ 
MIN PIERCE, and inform him of his 
nomination as the Democratic Republi¬ 


can candidate for Governor to be sup¬ 
ported at the March election in 1H29— 
reported, that the committee had wait¬ 
ed on him at Hillsborough, and receiv¬ 
ed for answer that he would be at the 
disposal of his fellow citizens as a can¬ 
didate for that office :—that to the sug¬ 
gestion that it had been contemplated 
to nominate him as a candidate for E- 
lector of President and Vice President, 
if the Convention should do so, he must 
decline that offer, inasmuch as it might 
be improper that he should be a candi¬ 
date for two important offices at the 
same time. 

Voted by the Convention, that the 
Hillsborough Delegation present to this 
Convention a candidate for Elector of 
President and Vice President to supply 
the place of Hon. Benjamin Pierce, 
who declines. 

Adjourned to two o’clock, P. M. 

Met according to adjournment. 

Mr. Peabody, from the committee 
appointed to nominate a candidate for 
Elector for Hillsborough, reported the 
Hon. JESSE BOWERS of Dunstable 
to fill that vacancy. W T hich report was 
accepted. 

Mr. Hill, from the Committee ap¬ 
pointed for that purpose, reported an 
ADDRESS to the people of this State, 
which was read and adopted. 

On motion of Mr. Durell, 

Resolved, That the Rejmblicans in the 
several Representative and Electoral 
Districts in the State, as designated by 
a vote of this Convention,friendly to the 
election of Andrew Jackson, be author¬ 
ized to hold District. Conventions at 
such times and places as they may deem 
proper, to fill such vacancies as may 
happen in the Electoral or Represen¬ 
tative tickets, to be presented to the 
people of this State by this Convention, 

The following Resolution was laid'on 
the table by Mr. Cushman of Ports¬ 
mouth, read, and unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, That the thanks of the 
members of this Convention be pre¬ 
sented to The President- for the able, 
dignified and impartial manner in which 
he has presided oyer its deliberations 
during the present session. 

To which the President replied : 

u Gentlemen of the Convention —On 
being conducted to this Chair, # it was 
and has been my intention to pursue 


8 


an impartial and independent course. If 
I have been so successful in that inten¬ 
tion as in any degree to have merited 
your approbation and thanks, my most 
sanguine wishes have been realized. 
Gentlemen, the amicable, conciliatory 
and dignitied course you have pursued, 
and the respectful and able assistance 
you have afforded to the chair, has 
made the duty easy and pleasant, for 
which you have my sincere and re¬ 
spectful thanks; and as vve are now a- 
bout to separate, Gentlemen, I wish 
you a pleasant journey home to your 
friends, and a happy interview with 
your families.” 


On motion of Mr. Greenleaf, 

Messrs. Isaac Hill, Matthew Harvey, 
Daniel M. Durell, Daniel C. Atkinson, 
Richard H. Ayer, Lyman B. Walker, 
Francis N. Fisk, Dudley S. Palmer, 
Robert Davis and John Townsend 
were appointed a Committee of Cor¬ 
respondence, &c. 

On motion of Mr. Durell, 

Voted , That this Convention be dis* 
solved. 

WILLIAM BADGER, President. 

FRANCIS N. FISK, Secretary. 


ADDRESS 

To the People of New- Hampshire 


Tre history of all governments fur¬ 
nishes ample demonstration that in eve¬ 
ry country there ha ir e existed two great 
political distinctions or parties—that 
might has constantly been warring a- 
gainst right —that “p° wer is always steal¬ 
ing from the many to the few ” In des¬ 
potic governments, it has ever been the 
policy of the few to keep the many in ig¬ 
norance, so that power could be effectu¬ 
ally grasped; and in governments con¬ 
trolled by the voice of the people, the 
exertions of the few have been untiring, 
first to cheat the people by every spe¬ 
cies of deception, and afterwards, grad 
nally to impair those rights and privileg¬ 
es on which a free government is based. 

Our fathers of the revolution success¬ 
fully contended against the arbitrary 
rule of the mother country, whose gov¬ 
ernment insisted on the right which the 
master exercises over the slave—on the 
right to tax us without our consent— 
on the right of the governor to perpet¬ 
uate his power against the voice of the 
governed. The despotism of the few 
was then put down, and the rights of 
the people established by their valor : 
the invaders of our soil were repelled, 
and the shackles of a foreign tyrant 
were thrown off. The nation breathed 
the pure and unsullied air of freedom. 
But the evil genius of Aristocracy, 
which discovered itself in the abettors 


of British tyranny, the tories of the 
revolution, still lurked amongst us; 
Scarcely fourteen years elapsed after 
the close of the revolution, before the 
administration of the government of the 
people was in the hands of men who 
contemned the rights of the people— 
scarcely fifteen years had elapsed, be¬ 
fore the rulers delegated by this free 
people, attempted by the passage of 
laws to throw around them those arbi¬ 
trary restraints which, had they not 
been early arrested, must have crea¬ 
ted a tyranny at home not less destruc¬ 
tive to all free principles, than the 
shackles which were contemplated by 
the tyrant from abroad. 

It will not be denied by any repub¬ 
lican, that the principles which charac¬ 
terized the administration of John Ad¬ 
ams—an administration styled, by way 
of eminence, “ the reign of terror”— 
w r ere the same in essence as the princi¬ 
ples contended for by the British par¬ 
liament. The “ Sedition law,” which 
made it a crime punishable by fine and 
imprisonment, to call in question any 
act, or to speak, write or print any 
thing disrespectful, or in disapprobation 
of the President, was founded on the 
Same arbitrary principle, as was that 
declaration by the British parliament 
of the right to tax US without our con¬ 
sent—to enact laws imposing arbitrary 





9 


regulations on a people who were not 

allowed to have a voice in making those 
laws. The u Alien law,” of the same 
administration, which invested the Pre¬ 
sident with power, on his own mere 
motion, to banish any foreigner from 
the country who should be obnoxious to 
his displeasure, savoured not less of ty¬ 
ranny than the most arbitrary law of 
the most arbitrary despot. The same 
administration attempted to perpetuate 
its power by creating a host of useless 
officers, whose influence was intended 
and expected to operate through every 
grade of society—by creating a stand¬ 
ing army in time of peace, which could 
have been intended only to overawe 
the people—by imposing taxes and 
heavy burdens on the people, intended 
to break down their spirit and to dis¬ 
courage their confidence in the value 
of our civil institutions—by holding up 
to public scorn and derision all who 
co (tended for economy and retrench¬ 
ment of unnecessary expenses—and by 
forcing the people to wear that arbi¬ 
trary badge of fealty to the powers that 
be, the u black cockade”! 

In the Alien and Sedition laws of John 
Adams, the spirit of the Constitution 
was violated—the principles of free 

government were trampled upon_ 

Those patriots who stood by the prin¬ 
ciples of the revolution were persecu¬ 
ted and proscribed. But the people, 
alarmed by the encroachments of the 
men in power—alarmed that the tory 
adherents of Britain in the revolution 
had assumed the control, and that the 
best patriots of the country who had 
fought and bled to procure independ¬ 
ence, were no longer cherished by the 
administration ; the sovereign peo¬ 
ple arose in the majesty of their 
strength and expelled from office the 
men who had abused their trust. On 
the fourth day of March, 1801, John 
Adams retired from the Presidential of¬ 
fice, amidst the frowns of an indignant 
people; and Thomas Jefferson, the 
man of whom John Adams declared in 
his letter to Cunningham in 1804, “ 1 
shudder at the calamities which I fear 
his conduct is preparing for his country” 
-—was invested with the Presidential 
office. Under the new administration, 
a new order of things immediately com¬ 
menced. Instead of a sedition law, free 
& 


discussion, the liberty of speech and 
of the press were restored: the alietft 
law was abolished. Instead of a us<r- 
l^ss standing army, a retinue of useless 
officers, and an increased public debt 
on eight per cent, loans ; the public ex¬ 
penses were lessened and the debt was 
rapidly discharged—the standing army 
and the hordes of useless officers werfe 
abolished. 

In his official communication t6 
Congress, Mr. Jefferson held the follow*'- 
ing language : 

“ These views are formed on the ex¬ 
pectation that a sensible, and, at the 
same time, a salutary reduction, may take 
place in our habitual expenditures. For 
this purpose, those of the civil govern¬ 
ment, the army, and navy, will need 
revisal. When we consider that this 
government is charged with the exter¬ 
nal and mutual relations only of these 
States ; that the States themselves have 
the principal care of our persons, ou'r 
property, and our reputation, constitu¬ 
ting the great field of human oncerns, 
we may well doubt whether our organ¬ 
ization is not too complicated , too expen¬ 
sive—whether offices and officers have not 
been multiplied unnecessarily , and some¬ 
times injuriously to the service they 
were meant to promote. I will cause 
to be laid before you an essay towards a 
statement of those, who, under public 
employment of various kinds, draw 
money from the Treasury, or from our 
citizens. Time has not permitted a 
perfect enumeration, the ramifications 
of office being too multiplied and too 
remote to be completely traced in a 
first trial. Among those who are de¬ 
pendent on executive discretion , I have 
begun thf* reduction of what was deemed 
unnecessary. The expenses of diplomat¬ 
ic agency have been considerably dimin¬ 
ished. The inspectors of internal rev¬ 
enue, who were found to obstruct the 
accountability of the institution, have 
been discontinued. Several agencies , 
created by executive authority , on salaries 
fixedby that also , have been suppressed , 
and should suggest the expediency of 
regulating that power by law, so as to 
subject its exercises to legislative inspection 
and sanction. Other reformations of the 
same kind will be pursued, with that 
caution which is requisite in removing 
useless things not to injure what is 


10 


tained. But the great mass of public 
offices is established by law, and, there¬ 
fore, by law alone can be abolished. 
Should the legislature think it expedi¬ 
ent to pass this roll in review, and try 
all its parts by the test of public utility , 
they may be assured of every aid and 
light 'which executive information can 
yield. Considering the general tenden¬ 
cy to multiply offices and dependencies , 
and to increase expense to the ultimate 
term of burthen which the citizen can 
bear, it behooves us to avail ourselves 
of every occasion which presents itself 
for taking off the surcharge; that it 
never may be seen here , that after leav¬ 
ing to labor the smallest portion of its 
earnings, on which it can subsist, gov¬ 
ernment shall itself consume the residue 
of what it was instituted to guard. In 
our care, too, of the public contribu¬ 
tions intrusted to our direction, it would 
fee prudent to multiply barriers against 
their dissipation, by appropriating spe - 
eific sums to every specific purpose suscep¬ 
tible of definition ; by disallowing all ap¬ 
plications of money varying from the ap¬ 
propriation in object , or transcending it 
in amount ; by reducing the undefined field 
of contingencies , and thereby circumscri¬ 
bing discretionary powers over money; 
and by bringing back to a single De¬ 
partment, all accountabilities for mon¬ 
ey, where the examination may be 
prompt, efficacious, and uniform.” 

Such were the doctrines of that great 
apostle of liberty, the illustrious Jef¬ 
ferson—- doctrines which were long 
practised under his administration and 
those of his successors ; but which now 
seem to have been forgotten by many 
Claiming affinity to the republican party. 

'’To trace the covert windings of the 
party which adhered to John Adams, 
from the reign of 1798 up to the pres¬ 
ent moment, would extend this address 
to a great length. At times, that party 
has taken the open field, and fought 
with a desperation bordering on mad¬ 
ness, denouncing every thing republi¬ 
can—every act of our republic:!* ad¬ 
ministration. The private character 
of Jefferson was assailed in vulgar prose 
and libidinous verse ; and every stigma 
which falsehood could invent was laid 
on the individual to cast reproach on 
the principles for which republicans 
contended. But when those principles, 


when the glorious cause of democracy, 
became predominant, and so triumphant 
as to defy the open assaults of their 
enemies, the vindictive Aristocracy, un¬ 
der the pretext of laying down their 
arms, have waged against them a more 
successful, because a more insidious 
warfare. The name of federalist, un¬ 
der which the Aristocracy at first were 
proud to rally, became so obnoxious, 
even before Mr. Jefferson left the office 
of President, that other convenient 
names or appellations were assumed by 
this party, as the circumstances or the 
times would favor its views. When a 
British commander, at New-York, wan¬ 
tonly fired on an American vessel and 
killed the American seaman, Pierce, 
and when a British squadron attacked 
the American frigate Chesapeake, un¬ 
der the pretext of claiming British sea¬ 
men, the Aristocracy were vociferous 
for war-—they reproached the adminis¬ 
tration with pusillanimity—they de¬ 
clared u our government could not be 
kicked into a war”—they were then 
the avowed friends of the nation's rights. 
When the administration, forceS to the 
alternatives of either paying tribute to 
Britain, of war, or an embargo, to save 
the remnant of our commerce, resorted 
to the latter measure, the Aristocracy 
were the friends of free and unrestricted 
trade! they would leave our ships and 
our seamen to take care of themselves. 
But when the nation, goaded and driven 
to the utmost verge of endurance— 
when thousands of our citizens, im¬ 
pressed on board of British ships, were 
compelled to fight her battles—when 
our ships and commerce were seized 
and confiscated under illegal orders in 
council—when ?he nation, driven to the 
last resort, was compelled to declare 
war; then the Aristocracy were the 
friends of peace ! In this character 
these boasted friends of peace were 
guilty of deeds, at the recital of which 
their posterity will blush; and ever 
since that disgrace, they have renounc¬ 
ed the name of federalist , as not less 
odious than that of tory, which fastened 
on the adherents of Britain at the era 
of the revolution 

An u era of good feelings” succeed¬ 
ed the treaty of Ghent, alter the acces¬ 
sion of J- Monroe to the Presiden¬ 
cy. This eminent citizen, like his pre- 


11 


i 


decessoF, James Madison, had been pe¬ 
culiarly a subject of federal obloquy, 
evei since the year 1800 : at that time 
governor of Virginia, he was reproach¬ 
ed in all the bitter vindictiveness of ul¬ 
tra federalism; and during the last two 
years of the late war he was conspicu¬ 
ous, from the situation he held in the 
government, as a mark for the arrows 
from the quiver of the federal party. 
It was this abuse that greatly recom¬ 
mended him to the republicans as a 
candidate who could stem the torrent 
when Mr. Madison retired. After his 
inauguration, Mr. Monroe visited tbe 
Northern States ; and strange as it may 
seem, such was the desire of the Aris¬ 
tocracy to conciliate the favor of the 
man whom they had recently abused, 
that they alone claimed the right to of¬ 
fer him their congratulations ; and in 
many towns, indeed in all the towns 
where the federal party was predomin¬ 
ant, the republican friends of Mr. Mon¬ 
roe, who had assisted to sustain the ad¬ 
ministration of which he had been a 
member, and the cause of the country, 
were studiously shut out of the com¬ 
mittees appointed to do public honors 
to the President of the United States! 
The crafty Aristocracy, proclaiming an 
41 era of good feelings,”* so contrived 
to manage the occasion of that visit, as 
to place on the footing of strangers to 
Mr. Monroe, the old republicans with 
whom alone he could claim affinity of 
feeling, and who alone had encountered 
with him the bitter hate and animosity of 
his present flatterers. Strange, indeed, it 
may not be considered, that the Presi¬ 
dent was partially caught in a snare so 
artfully set: all appeared fair and smooth 
on the exterior, although there were 
many republicans who then perfectly 
understood what was meant, it would 
not be wise to conceal that these person¬ 
al flatteries accomplished every thing 
the flatterers intended. Although the 
change of the administration was not 
immediate, the foundation was then laid 

* Extract from the Address of Hon. Thom¬ 
as IV Thompson, to President Monroe, in 

Concord, July 1817. 

“ Upon this auspicious occasion, party feel¬ 
ings are buried, aD'J buried, we hope, forever. 
A new era, we trust, is commencing. The lead¬ 
ing measures of the General Government accord 
remarkably with the views and principled of all 
parties/ 5 " 


which has since, in the election of the 
second Adams, restored to power the. 
party which fell with the first Adams: 
a foundation was then laid for that cra¬ 
ven u Amalgamation,” which more ef¬ 
fectually subserves the hidden purposes 
of mischief-making federalism than any 
other plot with which the Aristocracy 
have disgraced themselves since the 
termination of the 44 reign of terror.” 

Mr. Monroe, from that moment, look¬ 
ed with a more favorable eye on the 
men of the Hartford Convention. To that 
fallen party was then united all others in 
office or who desired office,whose object 
was more to serve themselves than the 
public : to that party was then united all 
such as woulo feed from the public crib; 
all who advocated sinecures and high sal- 
ries ; all who had adopted the doctrine 
that it was no sin to filch from the pub¬ 
lic coffers, and that the benefits of gov¬ 
ernment were intended for the govern¬ 
ors, and not the governed. Such is the 
materiel of which the present amalga¬ 
mation party is composed—the almost 
entire body of the federal party, at least 
that portion of the federal party which 
is ready to resort to any means, even 
the most dishonorable means, to regain 
power, united with all that is false and 
unprincipled, all who would sell their 
political rectitude, for the loaves and 
fishes of office. Mr. Monroe, indeed, 
never fully gave in to the vir ws of this 
party : he, probably, intended to sus¬ 
tain his democratic rectitude ; but the 
fawnings and flatteries of his old politi¬ 
cal enemies, with the false show of ob¬ 
livion to old party feelings which they 
took occasion to exhibit before the pub¬ 
lic, and especially before him, gave to 
his administration a complexion and a 
character which paved the way for that 
division in the republican ranks resulting 
in the formation of an administration of 
the highest Aristocratic character—an 
administration not less consonant to the 
wishes and desires of the Aristocracy, 
than was that of the first Adams. 

Never was deception more artfully 
or more successfully practised, than 
that practised by the Adams family on 
the people of the United States. Par¬ 
ticipating in the revolution, being one 
of those who subscribed the Declara¬ 
tion ot Independence in 1776, it was 
placed in the power of John Adams to 


12 


fake a conspicuous stand in the councils 
Of our country as a Patriot and a States¬ 
man. On a close review of his writings 
and his life, we are constrained to say 
that he never was a friend to republican 
government- —that all his professions of 
attachment to republican men and meas¬ 
ures were hollow-hearted and insin¬ 
cere. In saying this, we have no rea¬ 
son to doubt that he honestly opposed 
the tyranny of Great-Britain at the out¬ 
set ot the revolution : he, probably, 
desired independence: but he was one 
of those, who, having gained indepen- 
denoe, wished a government of the 
Well-born to be here instituted. Ac¬ 
cordingly, we find him, while in Europe, 
even before our present Constitution 
was adopted, writing and publishing a 
book in favor ot monarchy, in which he 
pronounced the British Constitution to 
be u the most stupendous fabric of hu¬ 
man invention.” In this work, entitled 
“ A Defence of the American Constitu¬ 
tions,” he says— 11 In every Slate there 
are inequalities which God and Nature 
have implanted there,” u particularly, 
inequalities of birth”—that “ the peo¬ 
ple in all nations are naturally divided 
into gentlemen and simplemen ”—that 
the poor are destined to labor, and the 
rich are qualified for superior stations '’— 
that u it is the true policy of the com¬ 
mon people to place the whole executive 
power in one man ”—that “ the good 
sense of the people of the United States 
will dictate to them, by a new Conven¬ 
tion, to make transitions to a nearer re¬ 
semblance to the British Constitution .” 
We find him afterwards, while Vice 
President of the United States, declar¬ 
ing to John Langdon (as is proved by 
the letter of that deceased patriot to 
Mr. Ringgold,) that u the people of Amer¬ 
ica will not be happy without an heredita¬ 
ry Chief Magistrate and Senate , or at 
least for life .” We find him, afterwards, 
while President of the United States, 
practising on these doctrines by intro¬ 
ducing into his administration, wherev¬ 
er it was in his power, the parapher¬ 
nalia of monarchical governments—by 
excluding from office many sterling pat¬ 
riots of the revolution, and by calling 
around him, as his advisers, the rankest 
aristocrats—-by recommending and sanc¬ 
tioning laws encroaching on the rights 
df the people, calculated to restrain 


the liberty of speech and of the press, 

in discussing the conduct of public men 
and the character of public measures, 
and likewise calculated to perpetuate 
power in the hands of an overbearing 
aristocracy. 

Writing to his relative, Cunningham, 
Jan. 16, 1804, John Adams, quoting 
another, says—“ I have always been of 
opinion that in popular governments, 
the people will always choose their of¬ 
ficer* from the most ancient and re¬ 
spectable families. * * * If a fam¬ 

ily that has been high in office and splen¬ 
did in wealth, falls into decay, from 
profligacy, folly, vice, or misfortune, 
they generally turn democrats and court, 
the lowest of the people with an ardor, 
an art, a skill, and consequently, with 
a success, which no vulgar democrat 
can attain.” Mr. Adams, although him¬ 
self then an old man, did not think rt too 
late, three years afterwards, seeing no 
prospect of promotion from the federal 
party, to bolt outright from his party. 
During those three years, himself and 
his son, who, we shall perceive hereaf¬ 
ter, was faithfully educated in the 
school of his father, continued to ex¬ 
press their contempt for sterling repub¬ 
lican patriots : the latter, so late as 
1807, wrote his famous vulgar verses 
ridiculing Mr. Jefferson, making as a 
subject of his raillery the purchase of 
Louisiana, against the acquisition of 
which, he had voted on every question 
brought before the Senate of the Uni.* 
ted States, of which he was a mem¬ 
ber. 

The father and son turned democrats 
in 1807. John Q. Adams became an 
open convert (no u vulgar democrat,”) 
in the latter part of that year, a few 
months after he presided at a Junto 
Federal Caucus in Boston, which nom¬ 
inated Caleb Strong as Governor, and 
Christopher Gore as Senator in Massa¬ 
chusetts; and he played his court to 
Mr. Jefferson and the people on that 
occasion “with an ardor, an art, a 
skill, and consequently with a success, 
which no vulgar democrat could attain.” 
So great was his ardor , his art and his 
skill on that occasion, that even William 
B. Giles, of Virginia, one of the most 
sagacious men in the country—a politi¬ 
cian who has scarcely ever mistaken 
any man’s real character—ackuowledg- 


IS 


«s that he then believed him sincere. 
And if x\lr. Giles was then deceived, as 
he now acknowledges, it cannot at all 
surprise us that the people were then 
deceived as to the real character of the 
Adams’conversion. The following ex¬ 
tract from a late number of the Tele¬ 
graph, published at the seat of govern¬ 
ment, under the eye of Mr. Adams, will 
furnish some idea of Mr* Adams’ con¬ 
version : 

44 Gov. Giles, in his late patriotic ad 
dress to the public, gives the following 
extract from a letter written to him by 
Mr. Jafferson. 

44 Mr. Jefferson said: 

44 You ask my opinions on the pro¬ 
priety of giving publicity to what is 
stated in your letter, as having passed 
between Mr. John Q, Adams, and your¬ 
self. Of this, no one can judge but 
yourself. It is one of those questions 
which belong to the forum of feeling. 
This alone can decide on the degree 
of confidence, implied in the disclosure. 
Whether under no circumstances, it was 
to be communicable to others. It does 
not seem to be of that character or at 
all to wear that aspect. They are his¬ 
torical facts, which belong to the pres¬ 
ent, as well as future, times. I doubt, 
whether a single fact knowu to the 
world, will carry as clear a conviction 
with it, of the correctness of our 
knowledge of the treasonable views of 
the federal party of that day, as that dis¬ 
closed by this most nefarious and daring 
attempt to dissever the Union , of which 
the Hartford Convention was a subse¬ 
quent chapter, and both of these hav¬ 
ing failed, consolidation became the 
first book of their history.” 

44 On the above, Gov. Giles, in a let¬ 
ter which appeared in a late Richmond 
Enquirer, among other things, thus re¬ 
marks : 

44 Hence the following facts evident¬ 
ly appear: that Mr. Adams made the 
disclosure to me, of his intending to 
desert the federal party the winter of 
1807, 1808—to the best of my recollec¬ 
tion, it was a short time previous to the 
first embargo. That it was made under 
the most solemn assurances of his pat¬ 
riotism and disinterestedness, and of en¬ 
tire exemption from dll views of per¬ 


sonal promotion by the party, to which 
he has proselyted. Mr Jefferson states 
the grounds of this charge, as commu¬ 
nicated by Mr. Adams himself, to be the 
treasonable views of the federal party, 
and that these treasonable views extended 
to disunion. All that now remains to be 
disclosed to the public, to give a full 
view of the whole ground of this event¬ 
ful transaction is, to designate the par¬ 
ticular conspiracy on the part of the fed¬ 
eralists of that day, 1807, which did in¬ 
duce Mr. Adams to charge them , accord¬ 
ing to Mr. Jefferson’s statement, with 
treasonable views to dissever the Union; 
the particular foreign agents with whom 
it was carried on , the particular circum¬ 
stances which gave rise to it , and the par¬ 
ticular portions of the federalists implica¬ 
ted in the treasonable negociations then on 
foot. Mr. Adams can state these facts 
to the public if he should think proper 
to do so ; or if, which I should suppose 
impossible, he should deny them; then 
ought he to tell, what other political 
sins the federal party had committed, of 
so heinous a character as to justify his 
open, formal and sudden abandonment 
of them in their utmost need, and in 
his adhesion to their opponents—indeed, 
in the true spirit of proselytism, his go¬ 
ing to the uttermost extremes in sup¬ 
porting his newly chosen associates, and 
his fulsome flatteries of Mr. Jefferson, 
through his extravagant commendation 
of this measure, and that too, not long 
after he had heaped upon Mr. Jefferson, 
all kinds of abuse, and even called dog- 
grel verse, as is said, to his aid for the 
purpose. Now suppose it should turn 
out, that no such conspiracy did exist y 
and that no treasonable negociations were 
canning on , no treasonable views xoere en¬ 
tertained by the federalists at that time, 
1807, what must the world think of such 
treacherous charges against his old 
friends for his own personal aggrandize¬ 
ment, as is now rendered evident, direct¬ 
ly against his own solemn avowals—(and 
I acknowledge I was deluded into a per¬ 
fect confidence in his disclosures)—f 
now sincerely believe , that the whole of 
these charges against the Jedera fists were 
unfounded, and consisted only in Mr. 
Adams’ own mental misgivings and po¬ 
etic licenses. For me, this conviction 
is sufficient; and I shall not vo»e for 
Mr, Adams for my President, O.hers, 


14 


of course, will also act as they think 
best.” 

Those who have been in the habit of 
hearing 1 the free conversations of Gov. 
Plumer of this State, who, whatever 
may have been his political changes, 
has always been as John Q,. Adams was, 
and who cast a solitary vote for Mr. 
Adams, the only vote against Mr. Mon¬ 
roe in all the electoral colleges oi 1820 
—must have heard him revert to this 
knowledge of Mr. Adams of the trea¬ 
sonable designs of certain leading fed¬ 
eralists. But notwithstanding this knowl¬ 
edge of treasonable designs, the father 
in a letter to Cunningham, beating date 
Dec. 13, 1808, more than a year after 
the family conversion, gives as a reason 
why John Q. Adams was averse to be¬ 
ing run by the republicans of Massa¬ 
chusetts for the office of Governor— 
“Because it would produce an eternal 
u separation between him and the fed- 
“ eraliris; at least, that part of them 
“ which constitute the absolute oli- 
“ garchy.” ! 

Mr. J. Q w . Adams, it will not be con¬ 
cealed, is at this time a favorite of the 
federalists. His accusa ions made against 
the leaders of that party to Mr. Jeffer¬ 
son and Mr. Giles in a manner so serious 
and solemn as then to extort from them 
a belief in their truth, were either true 
or false. If true, what excuse can be 
offered for Mr. Adams in now taking to 
his confidence and his embraces the 
iftost incorrigible men of that party ? 
If false, hew can these federalists now 
follow their accuser as a leader, and 
fawn around the traitor who stabbed 
them in the dark ? Mr. Adams offers 
no denial—no excuse o.r apology for his 
disclosure to Messrs. Jefferson and Giles: 
although he has frequently, while Se¬ 
cretary of State, and since he has been 
President, come before the public on 
more trivial subjects, he is silent on this. 
A more respectable authority could not 
be given as his accuser ; yet we ven¬ 
ture to affirm he will never further ex¬ 
plain to the public his knowledge of the 
treasonable designs of the federal party! 

In further proof that Mr. Adams’ con¬ 
version to republicanism was hollow 
hearted and insincere, we quote the 
following charge : About the same time 
he made his communication to Messrs. 
Jefferson and Giles,« at the table Of an 


illustrious citizen, he lamented the fear¬ 
ful progress of the democratic party, 
and of its principles, and declared that 
“ He had long meditated the subject, 
and had become convinced, that the on¬ 
ly method by which the democratic par¬ 
ty could be destroyed, was by joining 
with it, and urging it on with the ut¬ 
most energy to the completion of its 
views, whereby the result would prove 
so ridiculous and so ruinous to the coun¬ 
try, that fhe people would be led to 
desp:se the principles and condemn the 
effects of democratic policy, and then 
(said he,) we may have a form, of gov¬ 
ernment better suited to the genius and 
disposition of our country, than the pres¬ 
ent Constitution .” ” (See Note •/?.) 

We have said that Mr. J. Q. Adams 
was educated in the political school of 
his father : when he changed his poli¬ 
tics and made pretensions of attachment 
to the republican party, he was not 
more republican than his lather assum¬ 
ed to be. We have shown the aristo¬ 
cratic propensities of the father, as 
evinced in his writings and declarations. 
Those propensities have not been less 
marked with a decisive character in the 
writings of the son. The commence¬ 
ment of his political career, was in the 
same strain as that of the father. In a 
series of essays published in the Boston 
Centinel so early as 1792, he contend¬ 
ed for the same aristocratic doctrines— 
that 46 all the power of the people ought 
to be delegated for their benefit”—that 
“ the people of I ngland have delegated 
all their power to the King, Lords and 
Commons,” and that the British Gov¬ 
ernment is “ the admiration of the world”! 
If the conversion of J. Q. Adams in 
1807, had been sincere, his subsequent 
declarations would prove that he has 
since returned to his first love for mon¬ 
archy; lor in his letter to Levitt Har¬ 
ris, written during the last war, and 
while he was charging and receiving 
for double outfits and salaries and for con¬ 
structive journeys, he declared our re¬ 
publican government to be u feeble and 
penurious ”; (see Note B.) and after he 
had been placed in the office of Presi¬ 
dent, in defiance of the expressed wish¬ 
es of the people of Kentucky by the 
votes of the representatives of that 
State—after he had obtained that ele¬ 
vated situation by the w understanding^* 


15 


that if he should be elected President, 
by the vote and influence of a Kentucky 
representative, that representative 
should be appointed the second officer 
iu the administration—he advances, in 
his first message to Congress, the aris- 
tocraticai doctrine, that the represent¬ 
ative ought not to be palsied by the will 
of his constituents lest it 44 doom ” our 
government to a u perpetual inferiority” 
to ‘ 4 governments less blessed with free¬ 
dom.” From the year 1803, to the 
year 1807, he was in the United States 
Senate; and all that time he never gave 
a republican vote on any party ques¬ 
tion : he voted constantly against every 
question for adding Louisiana to- the 
United States—he voted against a pro¬ 
position to prevent the importation of 
slaves into that ter ilory. In his wri¬ 
tings, he called J. fferson the 4t Islam of 
Democracy,” as much as to say he was 
an artful impostor; and but a few 
months before his conversion, he ridi¬ 
culed in pitiful rhyme the author of the 
Declaration of independence, on the 
faise accusation of unlawful amours with 
44 Dusky Sally.” So far from regret¬ 
ting his old attachment to the aristo¬ 
cratic party—his opposition and abuse 
of the Democratic party—as late as 
1822, in his correspondence with Alex¬ 
ander Smyth, he vindicated his votes on 
the Louisiana treaty, charged Congress 
with usurpation for legislating over that 
country, and maintained that it was un¬ 
constitutionally added to the United 
States 1 

Although it is a matter of sincere re¬ 
gret we are obliged to admit the fact, 
it is not the less important that fact 
should be stated, that artful demagogues 
who have changed sides, men who, yes¬ 
terday, were flaming federalists, and, 
bo-day, are moderate republicans, have 
found too much favor and been too has¬ 
tily received into our ranks. Such 
men, having 44 turned democrats,” have 
generally 44 courted the people with an 
ardor, an art, a skill, and consequently, 
with a success, which no vulgar demo- 
«rat(that is, no democrat who acts purely 
from principle,) can attain.” We have 
before us many living examples ; and in 
the cases of men whose object has been 
the mere attainment of office, nine out of 
ten, he who has been gained to our cause 
kaa afterwards doubly injured u« by the 


grossest duplicity and treachery. The 
case of John Q. Adams, now before us, 
is one of the most striking. Being of a 
family more 44 high in office” than any 
which ever before apostatized from 
the federal party, his 44 art and skill, 
and consequently his success” have 
outstripped all other examples in this 
country. With the aid of his father, 
he has looked further ahead in all his 
plans of personal aggrandizement than 
any other political adventurer in this 
Republic. 

His political life has proved that he 
has practised most successfully on the 
now fashionable doctrine of the feder¬ 
alists, that 44 all is fair in politics.” The 
44 art and skill” of his father, after the 
measures cf his administration had be¬ 
come obnoxious to the people, in throw¬ 
ing the blame on Hamilton, Ames, Picks 
ering and other federalists who partici¬ 
pated in that administration, paved the 
way for the reception of both the older 
and the younger Adams into the repub¬ 
lican ranks ; and when the somerset was 
finally accomplished, the same 44 art and 
skill” are agffin visible in the choice 
made by the younger Adams of Picker¬ 
ing for an antagonist, when he fought 
himself into the favor of the democrats 
by seizing on a popular subject, and con¬ 
tending for that measure of the then 
existing administration which was in¬ 
tended to compel the British govern¬ 
ment to acknowledge American rights 
on the ocean. Whenever Mr. Adams’ 
republican attachments have been doubt¬ 
ed, his friends have deemed it a conclu¬ 
sive answer to refer us to his letter to 
Harrison Gray Otis, in answer to that of 
Timothy Pickering, in which he (Ad¬ 
ams,) defended the Embargo, and to his 
review of the works of Fisher Ames, 
published about the time of his conver¬ 
sion, in which he only condemns those 
doctrines in the latter, which were con¬ 
sonant with the repeatedly avowed doc¬ 
trines of his own family. 

These devices, like that of the avow¬ 
al to Jefferson and Giles of the discov¬ 
ery of a treasonable plot to dissever the 
Union among the leading federalists, 
were calculated to inspire confidence 
in the republicans as to the sincerity of 
the conversion of the Adams family. 
The younger Adams expected immedi¬ 
ate payment for bis aposlacy to the fed- 


16 


eral party. But Mr. Jefferson was cau¬ 
tious and guarded, and did not, during 
bis administration, bestow any of those 
honors which Mr. Adams thought his 
disinterested services merited. Accord¬ 
ingly we find his father writing private¬ 
ly to his friend Cunningham, Feb. 14, 
1809—“If his (John Q. Adams’) tal¬ 
ents and integrity continue to be neglect¬ 
ed, as they have been insulted, the fault 
is not his.” And when, some time af¬ 
terwards, after fruitless attempts to get 
some appointment, he obtained from 
Mr. Madison a mission to Russia, the 
father then writes to Cunningham— 
“ Aristides is banished, because he is too 
just: he will not leave an honester or 
an abler man behind him ” It is evi¬ 
dent, that the family then considered 
no office, short of the first in the gov¬ 
ernment, was sufficient to pay him for 
his apostacy. But Mr.Adams, “banished” 
as he was, made the best of this place, 
contriving at the same time he replen¬ 
ished his purse by holding on to double 
compensations, to stay in Europe until 
an opportunity should offer to embark, 
at home, in the line of “ safe prece¬ 
dents.” He returned from banishment 
and accepted the office of Secretary of 
State under Mr. Monroe. In this situa¬ 
tion, he availed himself not only of the 
immense influence which the office gave 
him, but of a variety of other incidents, 
to further his ambitious views. He had 
been withdrawn from the agitations of 
-the late war at home : he was not, 
therefore, obnoxious to the displeasure 
of the federal party on that account ; 
while he claimed the favor of the re¬ 
publicans for his ardent zeal in their 
cause at the time of the embargo. He 
saw he was not a favorite of the great 
body of the republicans of the Union; 
and hence his first political act was to 
conciliate the men of the old Hartford 
Conventionhy appointingBenjamin Rus¬ 
sell to print the laws of the United 
States— a man who had stigmatized the 
illustrious patriots, Jefferson and Madi¬ 
son, as u French citizens,” and “disci¬ 
ples and fellow-laborers in the same 
cause with their friend, the imperial 
butcher of the human race !” His on¬ 
ly hope was to “divide and conquer” 
the republican party; and hence, while 
he kept himself aloof, his friends, the 
federalists, threw into Congress the 


fire-brand which was calculated to 
arouse the North against the South 
—to awaken a mutual jealousy and 
hatred as unforgiving and cruel as 
the grave, among the slave and non¬ 
slave holding States. The Missouri 
slave question carried the hostile feel¬ 
ing to the highest pitch, for two or 
more sessions of Congress ; and when 
the asperity was stilled by the admis¬ 
sion in favor of Missouri, that Congress 
had, by the Constitution, no right to in¬ 
terfere, Mr. Adams himself, to concili¬ 
ate his friends in the slave-holding 
States, authorized the informal admis¬ 
sion, that he too was of opinion it was 
beyond the authority of Congress to leg¬ 
islate on the subject! An “art and a 
skill” was manifested on this subject by 
Mr. Adams and his friends, which, while 
it left no responsibility on him innocu- 
lated that poison into the public mind 
which was calculated to subserve fully 
the objects of the Websters, the Hop- 
kinsons and other politicians, who, at 
first, artfully kindled the flame. 

The plan to “ keep up the division” 
was artfully pursued during' the whole 
of the last four years of Mr. Monroe, 
Jefferson, Madison and Monroe had each 
been successively designated for the of¬ 
fice of President at open meetings of 
the republican members ot Congress; 
and this method was relied on by those 
who were sincerely desirous of contin¬ 
uing the unity of the republican party. 
The example had been sanctioned by 
Mr. Adams himself, who attended the 
meeting of Senators and Representa¬ 
tives soon after his conversion, which 
first nominated Mr. Madison ; but such 
a nomination, at this time, did not suit 
the convenience of Mr. Adams—he 
declared against this mode of nomina¬ 
tion—that he would not accept the of¬ 
fice, if designated as a candidate hy a 
caucus of the members of Congress. 
A combination was immediately enter¬ 
ed upon by his friends and the friends 
of other sectional candidates, to pre¬ 
vent any nomination by the members 
of Congress : the New-Hampshire del¬ 
egation was called together by Mr. Sen¬ 
ator Bell, and each was required to 
give the other a pledge that he would 
not go into convention to designate a 
candidate for President. It was bold¬ 
ly avowed, in the papers friendly tc 



17 


Mr. Adams, that their object was to by the people, to be without a paral- 


prevent the choice of any candidate 
by the people, and to bring- the question 
to be ultimately decided by the House 
of Representatives by States, where 
thirty-six representatives wrnuld have 
it in their power to control the votes 
of two hundred and thirteen represen¬ 
tatives—and where the one represent¬ 
ative of Missouri would have the same 
weight as the thirty-four representa¬ 
tives of New-York—where, in fine, as 
was predicted by the friends of Mr. 
Clay in Kentucky, the question might 
ultimately be carried by u bargain, in¬ 
trigue and management.” 

It is worthy of remark here, that it 
was the friends of Mr. Adams—nay, it 
,may be said to have been Mr. Adams 
himself, who first put forward Andrew 
Jackson as a candidate for the Presiden¬ 
cy ; for it was his own authorized Journ¬ 
al at Washington which then advocated 
the cause of the General—a paper 
which now daily pours the vilest abuse 
on the head of the hero “ who has fill¬ 
ed the measure of his country’s glory.” 
Mr. Adams and his friends did not sup¬ 
pose, when they at first set forward Gen. 
Jackson, that he would be a formidable 
rival to him—he was setup to “ divide 
and conquer” in those States where 
Mr. Adams .could obtain few votes 
against Mr. Crawford—he was set for¬ 
ward to prevent a choice by the peo¬ 
ple ; and, such was his popularity with 
the people, although the station was 
unsought by Gen. Jackson personally— 
such was the high estimation in which 
he was held, that those who set him 
forward, as we have good reason to be¬ 
lieve, deplored the effects of their own 
trick: indeed, what they intended as a 
ruse de guerre , was taken by the people, 
after Mr. Crawford’s lamented illness, 
so much in earnest, that the friends of 
Mr. Adams trembled for the result. 
Jackson obtained ninety-nine unbought 
electoral votes, while Adams himself 
obtained only eighty-four ; and of these 
twenty-six were given in New-York by 
a u bargain” in the Legislature of that 
State with the friends of Henry Clay, 
without consulting the wishes of the 
people of that State. 

It is believed the proceedings of the 
friends of Mr. Adams, in and out of Con¬ 
gress, to frustrate a choice of President 


lei in the history of our elections ; and 
to accomplish this object the manage¬ 
ment at Washington was as constant 
and untiring, as it was unprincipled. 
The influence of the existing adminis¬ 
tration was directed against Mr. Craw¬ 
ford, and in favor of Gen. Jackson only 
so far as to prevent the ultimate suc¬ 
cess of Mr. Crawford. It was a game 
of calculation on the part of Mr. Ad¬ 
ams and Mr. Clay, who was each for 
himself. Up to the time of the voting 
of the Electoral Colleges, these two 
gentlemen had been most bitter person¬ 
al and political enemies. The publi¬ 
cations of both the gentlemen in J 822, 
under their own signatures, prove that 
there was a secret hatred existing be¬ 
tween them while negociating the peace 
at Ghent: Mr. Clay then promised the 
public that he would, u at some time 
more propitious than the present, lay 
before the public a narrative of those 
transactions as he understood them 
and Mr. Adams answered, that as Mr. 
Clay’s narrative may u chance to he 
postponed until both of us shall have 
been summoned to account for all our 
errors, before a higher tribunal than 
that of our country, I feel myself now 
called upon to say, that let the appro¬ 
priate dispositions, when and how they 
will, expose the open day and secret 
night of the transactions at Ghent, the 
statements both of fact and opinion in 
the papers which I have written and 
published, in relation to this controver¬ 
sy, will, in every particular, essential or 
important to the interests of the nation 
or to the character of Mr Clay, be found 
to abide unshaken, the test of human 
scrutiny, of talents and of time.” Mr. 
Clay, in his published article, had hinted 
at some u errors” of Mr. Adams, ( u unin¬ 
tentional no doubt” ;)and the tenor of 
hot!) publications left us not without 
the inference that there was a deep 
grudge between the two statesmen. 
But the evidence developed by a re¬ 
cent investigation before the Senate of 
Kentucky, proves that the hatred of 
Henry Cla}' towards Mr. Adams could 
not be exceeded even by his present 
horrible aversion for Gen. Jackson. 
This evidence proves that at the very 
moment Mr. Clay was insinuating the 
“ unintentional errors” ©f Mr. Aiiams, 


18 

the western papers were teeming with have produced an abundant harvest of 
the most injurious charges against Mr. Q "'* hinmL” 


Adams, instigated by Mr. Clay’s own 
tongue, or coming from his own hand ! 

During that investigation, Mr. Wick- 
liffe, a devoted friend of Mr. Clay, as¬ 
serted in his place, that Mr. Clay nev¬ 
er did entertain any ill feelings towards 
Mr. Adams, in consequence of the 
transactions at Ghent; in proot of which 
he adduced Mr. Clay’s declarations to 
himself; and he defied the friends of 
Gen. Jackson to prove the contrary, by 
the evidence of any respectable man. 
Samuel Daviess, Esq. then arose in his 
place, and stated that the gentleman 
himself had, by his speeches and votes 
in 1824, affirmed the truth of the charg¬ 
es against Mr. Adams ; and he, more¬ 
over, produced a series of numbers, 
signed u Wayne” which were publish¬ 
ed in the 44 Liberty Hall and Cincinnati 
Gazette,” at Cincinnati, Ohio, early in 
the fall of 1822, averring that they 
were written in Kentucky, sent to Mr. 
Clay, and by him directly or indirectly 
forwarded to the State of Ohio, for pub¬ 
lication ; the proof of all which he de¬ 
clared he had at hand. Mr. Wickliffe 
sunk to his seat, overwhelmed at this 
prompt exposure, and no man dared 
again to say that Mr. Clay had no ob 
jections to Mr. Adams on account of the 
Ghent negociations. These numbers 
had passed through the hands of Mr. 
Clay, before the date of his publica¬ 
tion accusing Mr. Adams of 44 uninten¬ 
tional errors,” and were, at that very 
moment, republishing in the Kentucky 
papers. In these numbers he charges 
Mr. Adams with 44 an unfeeling policy,” 
44 which would crimson our fresh fields 
with the blood of our border brethren, 
and light the midnight forest with the 
flames of their dwellings”—with 44 giv¬ 
ing our wives and rhildren for fisk, and 
bartering the blood of our citizens for 
money.” The proposition to yield the 
navigation of the Mississippi, for the 
right of taking fish, contended for at 
Ghent by Mr. Adams, Mr. Clay declares 
to be a 44 fatal project,” an “atrocious 
proposal,” as 44 strange as it is alarm¬ 
ing and that, but for his own exer¬ 
tions, u the seeds of war might now 
have been sowing, along our western 
borders, which, at no distant day, would 


tears and blood. 

About the same time he wrote accu¬ 
sing Mr Adams of 44 unintentional” er¬ 
rors, and declining a controversy with 
Mr. A. lest his motives should be mis¬ 
construed, he called on his friend, the 
Editor ot the Argus, published at Frank¬ 
fort, Kentucky, far the purpose of cor¬ 
recting an error relative to the princi¬ 
ples assumed at Ghent, which had 
brought upon that editor and Mr. Clay 
the severe censure of Mr. Adams. He 
gave this friend a narrative of the pro¬ 
ceedings at Ghent, and convinced him 
of his error- The editor then took up 
the publication of Mr. Adams, and re¬ 
viewed it in a series of numbers ad¬ 
dressed to John Quincy Adams. After 
these letters had been published in the 
Argus, Mr. Clay offered the Editor fifty 
dollars, towards defraying the expense 
of their republication in pamphlet form. 
Finally, one thousand copies were print¬ 
ed in Lexington, by Mr. Tanner, and 
Mr. Clay paid one hundred dollars— 
about one half the expense—out of his 
own pocket, as the publisher iately tes¬ 
tified before the Senate of Kentucky. 
By this act, Mr. Clay adopted these let¬ 
ters, and made them his own. He made 
bimsell responsible for all the state¬ 
ments they contain—if he be not, in 
substance, their author. In these let¬ 
ters Mr. Clay charges Mr. Adams with 
44 bearing false witness against his neigh¬ 
bor with 44 falsehood” in relation to 
the navigation of the Mississippi—al¬ 
most with the massacre of one of hi* 
own 44 near connexions with 44 weigh¬ 
ing dollars against blood with 44 false¬ 
hoods” relative to the extent ot the 
fisheries, contested at Ghent ; with 
44 knowingly violating the very letter 
of his instructions with pursuing 44 a 
course wholly sectionalwith attempt¬ 
ing to make the Western people pay 
an exclusive tax of rivalship, war and 
blood, for the security of those fisher¬ 
men who frequent British waters 
with 44 manufacturing factswith as¬ 
serting 44 opposite principles with 
gross 44 absurdities, inconsistencies and 
contradictionswith injustice to his 
colleagues of the minority ; with a pol¬ 
icy promoting Indian wars and massa¬ 
cres ; with 44 a deadly hostility, or a 
culpable indifference to the interests of 


19 


the Western countrywith hostility 
to the anne xation ol Louisiana to the 
United States ; with u adding insult and 
mockery to abandonment and injustice;” 
with being u an artful sophist , a clumsy 
negociator ) and vindictive man;” with 

views TOO ERRONEOUS, FEELINGS TOO 
SECTIONAL, and TEMPER too vindictive, 
for the Chief Magistrate of a free people /” 

It has been, moreover, proved on 
Mr. Clay, that another great objection 
urged against the elevation of Mr. Ad¬ 
ams to the Presidency—an objection 
urged with untiring industry in the pa¬ 
pers in the interest of Mr. Clay in Ken¬ 
tucky and Ohio—was the danger which 
threatened our institutions from a per¬ 
petuation of the Cabinet succession —that 
the uniform practice of electing the 
Secretary of State to the office of Pre¬ 
sident, was assimilating our govern¬ 
ment to monarchy, in which each Chief 
Magistrate appoints his successor. The 
following extract from the Kentucky 
Reporter of July 15, 1818, a paper ed¬ 
ited by Mr. Smith, a connexion and de¬ 
moted friend of Mr. Clay, taken from 
among many others, proves the hostil¬ 
ity of Mr. Clay to the line of “ safe 
precedents 

u Mr. Adams is designated by the 
President and his presses, as the heir 
apparent, the next successor to the 
Presidency. Since the principle was 
introduced, there has been a rapid de¬ 
generacy in the Chief Magistrate ; and 
the prospect of greater degeneracy is 
strong and alarming. Admit the peo¬ 
ple should acquiesce in the Presidential 
appointment of Mr. Adams to that high 
office ; who again will he choose as his 
successor? Will it be Josiah Quincy, 
H. G. Otis, or Rufus King ? An aristo¬ 
crat, at least, if not a traitor, will be 
our portion.” 

Such was the bitter hostility of Hen¬ 
ry Clay towards John Q. Adams up to 
the time he was excluded from the 
House of Representatives by the votes 
of the Electors as one of the three high¬ 
est candidates—a hostility, certainly not 
less inveterate, not less unforgiving, 
than that now manifested by Mr Clay 
towards Gen. Jackson—a hostility not 
only to the person, but to the principles 
•f John Q. Adams. Yet, after Mr. 
Clay was himself excluded, in defiance 
of his own declaration# and principles* 


on the understanding that he should 
be Mr. Adams’ Secretary of State, by 
his controlling influence over five of the 
Western States, he made Mr. Adams 
President ! 

Much has been written and published 
to prove and disprove a bargain be¬ 
tween Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay. We do 
not consider it at all necessary to labor 
this point. In his zeal to divest him¬ 
self of the charge, Mr. Clay has prev 4 - 
ed too much : one single fact demon* 
strates how indefensible is his case. 
While he has produced the affidavits and 
declarations of his friends to prove that 
he had decisively made up his mind to 
vote for Mr. Adams, long prior to the 
time, he has himself declared in his 
speeches and his conversations that as 
late as the latter part of December 
prior to the election, he had not made 
up his mind to vote for Mr. Adams ! 
The Hon. John Floyd of Virginia testi¬ 
fies that so late as the month of Janua¬ 
ry, or the latter part of the preceding 
month of December, Mr. Clay made to 
him, in substance, the following declar¬ 
ation : “ When I take up the preten¬ 

sions of Mr. Adams, a id weigh them 
and lay them down—then take up the 
pretensions of Gen. Jackson, weigh 
them and lay them down by the side of 
those of Mr. Adams—1 never was so 
much puzzled in all my life, as I am 
to decide between them.” Abundant 
other evidence is presented of the de¬ 
clarations of Mr. Clay, that he himself 
stood wholly uncommitted. In his ad¬ 
dress to his constituents, after the elec¬ 
tion, he informs them of the delibera¬ 
tion which it cost him to make up his 
mind, after he found himself excluded 
from the House of Representatives : 
he says, “ I found myself transformed 
from a candidate before the people, in¬ 
to an Elector for the people. I delib¬ 
erately examined the duties incident to this 
new attitude , and weighed all the facts be¬ 
fore me , upon which my judgment wax- 
to be formed or reviewed ” Yet the 
o. Diary” of the Hon. William Plumer, 
jun. of this State, declares the opinion 
of Mr. Clay, as given to him, to have 
been unalterably fixed as early as the 
winter session of 1823-4! And Mr; 
Clay himself, notwithstanding his grave 
deliberation , now says his mind was de¬ 
cisively made up not to vote for Gern 


20 


Jackson, almost three months before 
the period of this deliberation ! 

The truth is, Mr. Clay, whether he 
had made up his mind or not, had de¬ 
termined that his influence in the elec¬ 
tion should go for his own personal ad¬ 
vantage : he intended that al! the can¬ 
didates should understand that he u stood 
uncommitted” until he ascertained what 
was to be done for him ; and according¬ 
ly so soon as the sworn enemies, Mr. 
Adams and Mr. C lay, met (according to 
letters then written to this State by 
Mr. Plumer, jun. to his father,) the bar¬ 
gain was completed , and Mr. Adams’ 
friends then, and not till then, under¬ 
stood that the election of Mr. Adams 
was certain. Mr. Francis Johnson, one 
of the Kentucky representatives, asked 
by one of his constituents, bow he came 
to vote for Mr. Adams ? answered that 
he thus voted to ^ get Air. Clay mode 
Secretary of State .” And Mr. David 
Trimble, another Kentucky represen¬ 
tative, said on various occasions, as is 
proved by numerous witnesses, “ it was 
distinctly ascertained that Air. Adams 
would make Air. ( day Secretary of State , 
and. that Gen. Jackson would not .” 

Resolutions instructing the Repre¬ 
sentatives of Kentucky to vote for Gen. 
Jackson, had parsed the Legislature al¬ 
most unanimously : Mr. Clay had re¬ 
ceived those instructions, and said that 
he stood uncommitted. Yet he voted 
for Mr. Adams against Gen. Jackson ; 
and when asked why he disregarded 
the voice of Kentucky,he has only to say, 
“the reason is my will” —as early as Oc¬ 
tober, 1824, 1 had taken a “ fixed reso¬ 
lution”—my resolution was “ unaltera¬ 
bly fixed”—I had come to a “ fixed and 
unwavering decision” not “ in any e- 
vent” or “ under any possible circum¬ 
stances” to vote for Gen. Jackson ! 

The bargain between Adams and 
Clay is best proved by those events 
which are matter of notoriety—by the 
fact that Mr. Clay and his friends voted 
for the man whom Mr. Clay had char¬ 
acterized as possessing “ views too nar¬ 
row, feelings too sectional, and a tem¬ 
per too vindic ive, for the Chief Mag¬ 
istrate of a free people,” for the very 
office of Chief Magistrate-—by the fact 
that he thus voted against the almost 
unanimous instructions of the Legisla- 
ture of his own State, and that he was 


rewarded for that vote by the man of 
“ temper too vindictive” with the ap¬ 
pointment of Secretary of State. The 
proof of corruption also exists in the 
fact, that Scott, of Missouri, who carri¬ 
ed the vote of that State for Mr. Ad¬ 
ams, and who had confessed that not 
one in twenty of the citizens of the 
State were friendly to his election, af¬ 
ter he had lost a re-election by the peo¬ 
ple in consequence of that vote, was 
rewarded by a more lucrative appoint¬ 
ment, that of inspector of land offices 
in the West, from the hand of Mr. Ad¬ 
ams : proof also exists in the ca«e of 
Cook, of Illinois, who also voted agninst 
the wishes of his State, and who, when 
he lost his election in consequence, was 
sent on a secret diplomatic errand, un¬ 
doubtedly with a compensation much 
larger than that of representative, by 
the administration which his vote had 
made !* The bargain is further prov- 

* It having been denied in the newspapers 
printed “ by authority,” that Mr. Cook eceiv- 
ed any such appointment, we subjoin the follow¬ 
ing extract from the report of the committee on 
retrenchment, made to the Hou^e of Representa¬ 
tives, May 15, 1828, and published among the 
official documents of Congress : 

“ In Ihe appendix, it. will be seen, that your 
committee received a communication apprising 
them, that the late Daniel P. Cook, late mem¬ 
ber of Congress from the State ef Illinois, had 
received the sum of $5,500 for some services 
connected with the foreign relations of the 
country. As no record appeared of this item 
on any of the accounts transmitted either from 
the Treasury or the Department of State, your 
committee called on the Secretary of State to 
inform them, if, in point of fact, Mr. Cook had 
been so employed, where they were to look for 
the settlement ol the account. This call result¬ 
ed in an ovettrive on the part of the Secretary 
of State, to m-tke to the Committee “ a confiden¬ 
tial communication respecting this expendi¬ 
ture, which he neither admitted or denied.’* 
On full consideration, your committee decided 
to decline receiving a communication burdened 
with such an obligation, as they desired to make 
no report to this House, which might not be 
common to the people, whose trustees and ser¬ 
vants we are. 

“ That Mr. Cook, after the adjournment of 
Congress in the Spring of 1827, received an ap¬ 
pointment fiom Ihe President, connected with 
our foreign intercourse ; that one thousand dol¬ 
lars were paid to him in advance, and in port 
compensation for his services ; that he actually 
embarked from New York <br Cuba, towards 
the end of April, (which it appears was the place 
of his public destination ;) that he arrived ear¬ 
ly in Juno at St. Louis, Missouri, on his return 
home ; that he was iu exceedingly critical health 
and in doubtful condition to attend to any busi¬ 
ness, more especially, of a diplomatic character, 
requiring so much labor and anxiety ; that he 
did not understand the language ofi the people 



21 


ed by the fact that the election of Mr. 
Adams was ascertained even before the 
balloting took place, and was foretold 
in letters received in this State from 
members of Congress. It has also been 
charged by respectable testimony— 
and has neve: beei denied by Mr. Web¬ 
ster, that he exhibited,a; an inducement 
for the federalists to support Mr. Ad¬ 
ams, a written pledge, corrected by the 
ha --d of v't r. Adams turn-self ", that in case 
he should be elected President, the fed¬ 
eral party should be provided for, as 
it has been provided for in the case of 
Rufus King and others This pledge 
was exhibited to members of Congress 
and outers by Mr. Webster: at least, he 
has been charged with the exhibition, 
and has nev«r denied it. And Mr. 
Walsh, tn ■ devoted friend of Adams and 
Webster, has virtually admitted the ex¬ 
istence of this written pledge. 

Considering every circumstance—the 
previous hostility of Mr. Clay, and his 
subsequent appointment as Secretary of 
State—the protection given by the Pre¬ 
sident to Scott and Cook—the pledge 
to Webster for the federalists ;—if the 
case be not made out that th.e last Pres¬ 
idential election was brought about by 
“bargain, intrigue and management,” 
we conceive it to be difficult, nay, im¬ 
possible, that any case of bargain can 
be made from evidence. 

It is no matter of “special wonder” 
that Mr. Adams, and the friends of Mr. 
Adams, should have anticipated an op¬ 
position ^o an administration thus cor- 

among whom he was sent, probably as a secret 
agent ; that he must have been less than one 
month in Cuba on this service ; that he was to 
receive, and probably has received, a further 
sum than the amount of the advance made him 
in remuneration for his services, and that this 
remuneration came out of the secret service 
fund, are facts which your committee think abun¬ 
dantly appear from the testimony in the appen¬ 
dix. They coerce., on their face, the solemn 
enquiry, why Mr. Cook, under such circum¬ 
stances, was appointed a secret agent, and why 
he was paid out of this fund 1 Whilst your 
committee feel the force of this question, they 
feel it likewise their duty to leave it where they 
find it, with the remark that such payment, 
made from such a fund, finds no sanction from 
the precedent of an agency to Cuba, instituted 
during the Administration Of Mr. Monroe, 
which was filled with eminent ability by Mr. 
Thomas Randall, and whose compensation was 
paid with specification, out of the contingent 
fund of foreign intercourse, and audited under 
the ordinary circumstances of official notoriety 
at the Treasury.” 


ruptly formed. It was, in the very na¬ 
ture of things, to have been expected 
that his re-eiection would have been 
opposed by all who had not participa¬ 
ted in the first choice ; and such is the 
jealousy in this free country of the 
purity of our elections, that be ought 
to have anticipated that a very large 
portion of his own supporters at the 
polls would so have condemned the 
means by which he was, in the end, 
elected, as to withdraw their support. 
Trainelled with bargains and pledges 
as Mr. Adams was at the time of his 
election, he lias deemed it to be expe¬ 
dient and necessary to pursue the same 
system to support a sinking cause. A 
course of electioneering, of attempts 
to operate on the State elections, has 
been adopted, which is believed to be 
without example in this tree govern¬ 
ment. Professing to belong to no po¬ 
litical patty, this administration has used 
its official influence to purchase the sup¬ 
port of the unprincipled of all parties. 
Where its adherents supposed themselves 
to be strong in point of numbers, pro¬ 
scription has been the order of the 
da}': where they were lew, the pat¬ 
ronage of the men in power has been 
held out as an inducement to come over. 
Political apostates have been rewarded 
wdth public patronage ; and those po¬ 
litical knaves who, having opposed Ihe- 
election of Mr. Adams, afterwards be¬ 
came his flatterers, are now most warm¬ 
ly caressed.* 


* To name one instance, the patronage of the 
administration, has been heaped upon John. 
Binns. The printing of the Custom House, by 
order from Washington, was taken from a wid¬ 
ow to a soldier of the revolution, and given to 
John Binns ; and the same Binns has been ap¬ 
pointed printer of the laws of the United States. 

“ Binns’s Profligacy. —Reader ! If you 
wish a specimen of political profligacy and base¬ 
ness, that has no parallel in the history of mean 
and unprincipled actions, read the following ex¬ 
tract from the Democratic Press of 1815, and 
then contrast it with the daily sheet of he au¬ 
thor of the extract, who is employed in heaping 
upon the head of ANDREW JACKSON every 
species of malignant abuse, denouncing him as a 
murderer, violating the quiet of his domestic 
retirement, and lacerating the feelings of the 
partner of his cares and toils, by the most infa¬ 
mous falsehoods ; and after you have read the 
article, if you shall ask, why the author of it haj 
become the reviler of the brave defender of liis 
country, you will find the answer in two words 
—“ Presidential patronage —Judas betrayed 
his master for thirty pieces of silver. This man 




22 


0* a review of the e-eurse of Mr. 
Adams, it is not at all surprising that 
he has become a favorite of the feder¬ 
al party ; for where has there been an 
instance of apostacy from democratic 
principles that has not recommended 
the apostate to the favor of the feder¬ 
alists ? He is likewise endeared to 
that party by an adherence to the doc¬ 
trines of his father—by his strong de¬ 
sire to consolidate power, that power 
which belongs to the individual States, 
in the hands of the federal government. 
The profuse expenditures of his admin¬ 
istration also strongly recommend him 
to that party which, ever since 1800, 
has fed on corruption as its best ali¬ 
ment, and which looks on every en¬ 
croachment on the rights of the people 
as a gain to its cause. 

In the administration of Mr. Adams, 
we see the old principle of Aristocra¬ 
cy warring against the principle of De¬ 
mocracy. The public documents,the re¬ 
ports of the Treasury Department, prove 
that in the three first years of his admin¬ 
istration, in a time of general peace, 
the expenses have exceeded, by more 

lives upon the crumbs that fall from the execu¬ 
tive table. 

“ From the Democratic Press, March 28,1815. 

EDITED BY JOHN BINNS. 

“ Before the attack on Orleans, the Federal 
Republican assailed the character of Gen. Jack- 
son, but he soon found he was gnawing a file. 
The halo of glory which has surrounded this dis¬ 
tinguished CHIEFTAIN, has struck dumb the 
slanderers, and he is, of all our warriors, first 
in the hearts of our countrymen. That he 
should be envied and hated by the British, is 
right and reasonable, but that any Americans, 
even skuiking, trembling cotvards, who, in the 
battle day never saw the enemy, but were safe 
under the shadow of Jackson’s valor and fore¬ 
sight, that such men with a dastardly and ma¬ 
lignant spirit should, shrouded in darkness and 
at thousands of miles distant, attempt to assas¬ 
sinate the fair fame of Gen. Jackson, may be 
permitted to excite some wonder. But Gen. 
Jackson repulsed the enemy with great slaugh¬ 
ter. He is a republican, and therefore must be 
vilified. “ Be thou as pure as snow, as chaste 
as ice, thou shalt not escape calumny.” 

“We have avoided, as far as duty would per¬ 
mit, any remark* upon the federalists who held 
distinguished commands in the army ; but our 
forbearance and that of the Republicans gener¬ 
ally, appears to be attributed to any thing rath¬ 
er than a generous contempt for men who re¬ 
flected 60 little honor on the military character 
of the nation. The remark is now extorted from 
us, but it is as true as the bravery of Gen. Jack- 
son Is indisputable :—Every glorious militat'y 
event of the war, whether of attack or defence, 
wav achieved under the command of a Republi¬ 
can officer** 


than EIGHT MILLIONS of dollars,, 
the expenses of the last three years of 
Mr. Monroe. (See Note C.) If it be 
asked how this money has been expend¬ 
ed ; as a sample, it may be answered—• 
large sums have been paid to favorites 
and dependents, for which adequate 
services have not been rendered: wit¬ 
ness, more than $5000 paid, contrary 
to law, to John A. King for about six¬ 
ty days service—$1,940 paid to J. H. 
Pleasants, one of Mr. Adams’ editors, 
for carrying despatches to Buenos Ayres 
when he never went—$1,205 paid to 
Mr. Clay’s son for carrying a packet to 
Mexico, when the service would have 
been as well done for $200—$2,388 
extra paid the Attorney General for, at¬ 
tending to certain law business of the 
United States during five months, at the 
same time his salary of $3,500 was go¬ 
ing on—$1000 paid to prepare for mak¬ 
ing pictures of John Q. Adams to send 
among the Indians. This is barely a 
sample of the manner in which the con¬ 
tingent and other expenses in nearly 
every department have been improvi- 
dently enlarged. The constitution has 
been greatly warped, if not expressly 
violated, for the purpose of catching 
the opinions of different districts or par¬ 
ticular States, and sending swarms of 
government officers, charged with the 
prosecution of local improvements, with 
the government funds, and having also 
a special charge of the votes of the 
people. 

During this administration, the Pres¬ 
ident has asserted that he alone had 
the right, without the consent of the 
Senate, to institute foreign mission*; 
and under him missions have been at¬ 
tempted, and favorites appointed on 
those missions, which experience has 
condemned,and the policy ofthe country 
has forbidden. 

During this administration, while the 
Heads of the Departments, particular¬ 
ly the Secretary of State, have been 
travelling the country, making elec¬ 
tioneering harangues, as if determined 
sooner to u annihilate heaven and earth 
than fail of carrying their point,” the 
public interests have been grossly neg¬ 
lected ; an important trade with the col¬ 
onies of England and France in the 
West Indies has, in one case, been 
destroyed, and m olhej endangered 



23 


by over-diplomacy in the ©me instance, 
and utter neglect in the other. 

During this administration, whilst a 
great public question (the Tariff',) has 
been perverted to political uses, and 
very large and exclusive pretensions 
set up for political effect, that great 
subject has been neglected in the offi¬ 
cial recommendations of the President, 
and has been voted against by seme of 
ffis immediate political and local friends 
and supporters. 

During this administration, its friends 
and abettors have incessantly attempted 
to array the prejudices and the worst 
passions of the people of the North, 
against their brethren of the South, by 
repeating the old epithets of “ slave re¬ 
presentation” “ negro votes” u southern 
aristocracy,” “ slave-holders of the South,” 
“ white slaves of the North,” so often 
ased by the federalists fifteen years 
ago—thus setting at defiance the sa¬ 
cred injunction of Washington to “frown 
indignantly on the first dawning of ev¬ 
ery attempt to alienate any portion of 
©ur country from the rest, or to enfee¬ 
ble the sacred ties which now link to¬ 
gether the various parts.” 

During this administration, the most 
glaring attempts have been made to in¬ 
terfere in the local and State elections 
directly from Washington. Witness 
the journey of Slade, a Clerk in the 
employment of Mr. Clay, to Vermont, 
at the time of the last election of U. 
S. Senator in that State, receiving 
more than $1000 as a compensation for 
distributing laws, a part of which he 
never delivered , while his pay as Clerk 
w T as going on at home. Witness the 
journeys to Kentucky of Mr. Clay 
himself on the eve of her elections, and 
his electioneering speeches before the 
people. Witness the thousands of mis¬ 
representations and falsehoods, sent 
from Washington, under the official 
frank of members of Congress, before 
the late election in this State. Witness 
the official misrepresentations and false¬ 
hoods of the War Department, relative 
to the trial and execution of the six 
mutineers at Mobile during the last 
war, and the attempt to impose the lie 
on the people, that the time of service 
of those' mutineers and deserters had 
expired. Witness the circulation, from 
Washington, of the most unfair and un¬ 
just attacks upon the character #f Sen. 


Jackson—the gross perversions of hid 
views, and the most calumnious mis¬ 
representations of his conduct, prepar¬ 
ed under the eye of the Cabinet, pro¬ 
fusely circulated by members of Con¬ 
gress, the confidential agents and ad¬ 
visers of the administration, who, for 
these purposes, have prostituted their 
official franks. 

Having shewn, 1st, the objection to Mr. 
Adams on account of his politcal doc¬ 
trines; 2d, on account of the manner of 
his election ; and 3d, an account of the 
conduct of his administration; the ques¬ 
tion presents itself,— Why is he entitled 
to the support of Republicans ? There 
are those, who contend that, being still 
a republican, Mr. Adams ought to be 
considered the republican candidate. 
To such, it is a sufficient answer to say 
that Mr. Adams bore testimony, in his 
first official message to Congress, 
against continuing the former political 
distinctions, and his policy has ever 
since been to break down the republi¬ 
can unity by creating local parties in 
the various sections of the Union. 
While he has professed a wish to do 
away the asperities of party, he has 
encouraged and countenanced the pro¬ 
scription and persecution of men of the 
old republican family: he has, in fact, 
merged all distinctions of principle, and 
made the question of opposition or sup¬ 
port of his measures and his re-elec¬ 
tion, the dividing line between the par¬ 
ties. His partisans and retainers have 
allowed no freedom of opinion in dis¬ 
cussing public men and measures—* 
they have tolerated neither opposition 
nor neutrality, but required unequivo¬ 
cal approbation of all measures, right 
or wrong—they have revived the ex¬ 
ploded doctrine that “ the King can do 
no wrong;” and by a system of favor¬ 
itism to flatterers and fawning syco¬ 
phants, and of persecution of all oth¬ 
ers, they have attempted to force this 
doctrine on the people. It is evident, 
therefore, that as a republican, Mr. 
Adams has no claims on the old repub¬ 
lican party for support. 

Nor has he, on the score of personal 
pretensions, greater claims on the suf¬ 
frages of the people, than thousands of 
others. He has been better paid for 
his services than any other man. In 
less than eight years he received about 
$120,000, being at the rate tfi $U>,0§© 


24 


per year; and for services during two 
years, including the last year of the 
war,*whenhe was uttering the reproach 
that our government was u feeble and 
penurious,” he received from $40,'.)00 
to $65,000, much of it contrary to law, 
and in dereliction of patriotism. As 
he has received a higher compensation, 
so it has been alleged that his talents 
and qualifications are superior to those 
of other men. We look in vain to any 
acts of his present administration for 
evidence of those superior talents and 
qualifications. True it is, he received 
much of his education in a foreign land, 
near the courts of hereditary princ'es ; 
true it is, that his father presented a 
bill of charges for a part of the educa¬ 
tion of his minor son while abroad, 
which was disallowed by Congress : but 
we, as republicans, cannot yield to the 
opinion that a princely education in and 
near the despotic courts of foreign gov¬ 
ernments, better qualifies the statesman 
and the patriot, than the plainer modes^ 
pf education in our own country. 

: 'Would the friends of Mr Adams 
claim for him support as the republican 
candidate, why do they contemn the 
republican usages in electing a repub¬ 
lican President ? Why do they call, 
in aid of his re-election, the support of 
the enemies to republican principles? 
It cannot be pretended that at any time 
Mr. Adams has been the favorite of any 
considerable portion of the republican 
party out of New-England; and what¬ 
ever may have been the case previous 
to the last election, it will not now be 
pretended that he is the choice of the 
republicans of New-Hampshire. With 
all the array of sectional prejudices 
which has been brought to bear on this 
question, it must be admitted that not 
one republican voter in six, in this 
State, now favors the election of Mr. 
Adams. Heretofore it has been deem¬ 
ed factious in the minority of any party 
to unite with the opponents of that par¬ 
ty to defeat the voice of a majority: the 
punishment of all unprincipled men has 
awaited those who have assisted to “ di¬ 
vide and conquer” by means like these. 
The public indignation has long pointed 
at those who, by treachery, have wound¬ 
ed their own cause in the house of its 
friends. The “ republican friends of 
Mr. Adams,” if, indeed, there be any 


republicans left in this State who are 
still determined to adhere to him, must 
either admit that their conduct is fac¬ 
tious in supporting a candidate against 
the wishes of a large majority of the 
republican party ; or, waiving all pre¬ 
tensions as republicans, they must iden¬ 
tify themselves with that party now sup¬ 
porting Mr. Adams in this State, which 
has always been opoosed to republi¬ 
cans. And if the doctrine of amalga*- 
mation which is now so fashionable with 
the Adams party, be indeed adopted— 
if there be now no difference either in 
the principles or the merits rtf those who 
were formerly designated by the names 

iof federalists and republicans-why 

continue to claim as a merit that a 6andi- 
datO|fbr office has been forme)ly a re¬ 
publican ? why do federalists keep in 
the bdek ground, and put forward be¬ 
fore the public none but those found ly 
called republicans? why did the admin¬ 
istration party, whose meetings before 
the la9t election were composed M at 
least four-fifths federalists, nor. irate a 
ticket for Governor, Counsellors and 
Senators, exclusively of the men who 
had acted with the republicans? why do 
the federalists make an array of repub¬ 
lican names as the supporters of Mr. 
Adams in this State, and in ail cases, 
where they can be found, elect Delegates 
to the Adams Conventions, men who call 
themselves republicans? If there is 
x no differ ence in the parties, why do they 
make the distinction? If they do not 
consider there is still a difference, why 
do they make a difference in the selec¬ 
tion of their candidates ? Base and de-. 
grading must be that duplicity, that hy¬ 
pocrisy, which, while it insists on the 
oblivion of former party distinctions, 
keeps up those very distinctions, doing 
voluntary penance to the principles it 
hates by nominating only those men as 
candidates for office, who formerly pro¬ 
fessed the doctrines hated, but are now 
ready to become traitors to those doc¬ 
trines, to conciliate the favor of their 
former opponents ! Such is the pres¬ 
ent degraded condition of the party ad¬ 
hering to the fortunes of John Q. Ad¬ 
ams—nay, such is the double degrada¬ 
tion to which Mr. Adams himself is re¬ 
duced ! 

The shameless effrontery with which 
men, high in office, have exercised n«rt 



25 


*)niy their individual influence, but the 
influence of their official patronage to 
control the -tate elections, finds no par¬ 
allel in this country. The conduct of Hen¬ 
ry Clay, the first Cabinet officer of Pre¬ 
sident Adams, having been as barefaced 
and shameless, as it is alarming and re¬ 
volting to the friends of tree elections, 
challenges the public reprobation. It has 
been urged by his friends that the ardu¬ 
ous duties ot his office have affected his 
health. It so, there is the less excuse 
for his conduct; for it may, in truth, 
be alleged, that his electioneering ef¬ 
forts alone would have been sutlicieht 
for the labors of any one man. Indeed 
we have good reason to believe that 
the subject of the next election has al- 
. most exclusively occupied his a^^ntion. 
Why was the British 4trade' with the 
West-Indies lost to th^ UniteM^States— 
lost, too, purely from neglect, because 
the Executive has since offered to take 
the precise terms proffered by the Brit¬ 
ish government? It was lost, because 
Mr. Clay, after a minister had been ap- 
pointed.^ instead of taking a little time 
to write his instructions, was spending 
that time in making electioneering ha¬ 
rangues at barbecue dinners to influence 
the elections in Kentucky. Mr. Clay 
has pursued his system of electioneer¬ 
ing with an u ardor, an art, and a skill” 
hitherto unprecedented : he seems de¬ 
termined u rather to annihilate heaven 
and earth, than fail in carrying his 
point.” His most extraordinary effort, 
was the last of which the public have 
any account, to wit: his dinner speech 
at Baltimore ; in which he whose very 
life forbid^ the idea of morality and re¬ 
ligion- he who deliberately attempted, 
even since he held his present office, 
to take the life of a Senator, for the 
exercise of he liberty of speech guar¬ 
anteed by the Constitution—publicly 
invokes the Deity, and puts up the 
prayer: £t If, indeed, we have incur- 

“ red the Divine displeasure, and it be 
u necessary to chastise this people with 
4e the rod of His vengeance, l would 
u humbly prostrate myself before Him 
u and implore His mercy to visit our 
41 favored land, with WAR, with PES¬ 
TILENCE, with FAMINE, with any 
u scourge other than military rule, or 
a blind and heedless enthusiasm for 
44 mere military renown” 1 

4 


In this mixture of shocking impiety 
and madness, it is but too plain that Mr. 
Clay’s objection to Gen. Jackson now, 
has the same moving cause as had his 
hostility to Mr. .Adams prior to the lat¬ 
ter part of 1824—it is himself, and not 
his country, that called forth bis vehe¬ 
mence and zeal. In the anticipated 
failure of Mr. Adams and himself, he 
sees the triumph of the Pebpie over 
the cause of the unnatural and unholy 
Coalition ; he sees his own prospects, 
his only hope of arriving at the highest 
office in the Republic in his own mark¬ 
ed line of u safe precedents,” forev.ef 
blasted. But 

4 ‘ Is there not some chosen curse. 

Some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven. 
Red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man” 
^vho would rather that any curse—that 
even the three direst calamities that 
can be named, should fall on his whole 
country, than that he should fail to car* 
ry his point! 

It was Mr. Clay, personally, who first 
raised the outcry of u Military Chief¬ 
tain,” as applied to the candidate of 
the people—it was Mr. Clay who 'was 
foremost in creating an alarm : and it 
is Mr. Clay and his creatures who have 
attempted not only to strip the hero of 
his laurels, but have conjured from the 
abodes of infamy, by all the ingenuity 
of fraud and falsehood, the materials 
to deceive and alarm the people. There¬ 
fore are we, on this occasion, justified 
in naming the most formidable, the 
most persevering, the most bitter and 
vindictive enemy of Jackson. 

The term u Military Chieftain’’ will 
apply to any civilian as well as to Gen. 
Jackson. There is something due to 
him on the score of military renown ; 
but, like Washington, more is due to 
Jackson, that he is an honest man, an 
inflexible patriot and republican, a man 
of sound and ripe judgment, of excel¬ 
lent discrimination, and of practical 
knowledge of the genius and spirit of 
our free institutions, than to any mere 
military exploit. Who can fail to ad¬ 
mire the honest soldier, who has fought 
the battles of his country, whether in 
poverty or affluence ? Is there any 
danger that these shall have too much 
of our sympathy? Is there danger of 
him who, regardless of life and prop- 
ty, has fought and bled for the liberties 


26 


of hte country, that he will turn traitor 
to the very freedom and independence 
he has assisted to establish? Rather 
should we not suspect the patriotism 
of the mere civilian, who, forever fed 
and pampered on the public treasury, 
has yet never been satisfied with the 
quality or the amount of the feeding ? 
Shall we reject, as a dangerous u Mili¬ 
tary Chieftain,” him who ted upon a- 
corns. who pledged his whole estate, 
his own life, for his country when that 
country was in danger ; and prefer him 
who, while hi« country was bleeding at 
every pore, was receiving double out¬ 
fits and salaries, and at the same time 
uttering the reproach, that our govern¬ 
ment was 44 feeble and penurious” ? 

The character of Gen. Jackson is 
cot such as to bear comparison with 
that of anydangerou3 44 Military^ Chief¬ 
tain.” Ttie genius of our Constitution, 
not less than the intelligence and vir¬ 
tue of the people, which constitute the 
stamina of that Constitution, forbid the 
idea of danger from any military man. 
The President, in no case, personally 
leads our armies; and if he did lead 
them, they are a body of enlightened 
freemen not less interested than all oth¬ 
ers to preserve our civil institutions. If 
the muskets could be wrested from the 
hands of our yeomanry, as they have 
been under despotic governments—if, 
after they are thus wrested, the com¬ 
mand, even of so small a standing army 
as twenty thousand men should be giv¬ 
en to any man—there would be more 
real danger of that man, than there 
ever can be of a President of the Uni¬ 
ted States, surrounded as he must l/e 
■with all those counteracting checks 
which cannot fail to foreclose every 
avenue to encroachment on the peo¬ 
ple’s rights. 

But i: is not military men who have 
been the most dangerous men : it is true, 
before the light of knowledge was ex¬ 
tensively diffused, military men have 
been usurpers: A Bonaparte has trod¬ 
den over the liberties of mankind; but 
it was such 44 practised statesmen” as 
Mirabeau, and Danton, and Marat, and 
Robespierre who 44 destroyed the demo¬ 
cratic party” in France, by 44 joining 
with it and urging it on” in headlong 
enthusiasm, till the people became sick 
•f self-goverement and ready to yield 


it into the hands of a 44 Military Chief¬ 
tain” as the only means of safety. So 
in this country, there is more danger 
to our civil liberties from the artifices 
of one such man as John Q. Adams or 
Henry Clay, ready to stretch the Con¬ 
stitution to any dimensions, so it may 
suit their purposes of patronage ; ready 
to seize on any precedent as a pretext, 
and to do any violence to right and jus¬ 
tice, even on mistaken precedents; than 
from the combined efforts, in that ca¬ 
pacity, of all the military men that 
have lived, now live, or will live in this 
country for a century. 

But our object is not simply to pre¬ 
sent a question ol individual preference 
in the choice of candidates for Presi¬ 
dent. It is to prevent the recurrence 
in the - next election of that state of 
things, which, at the last election, took 
the choice of President from the hands 
of the people, and placed it in the hands 
of a minority of a House of Represent¬ 
atives, scarcely one in twenty of whom 
were chosen bj' the people ^ ith a view 
of b*fing called upon to decide that 
question, it is important that we have 
a gdbd man and a sound patriot to be 
our Chief Magistrate ; but it is more 
important that the man, whoever he 
may be, should be the choice of the peo¬ 
ple. It has been the constant object 
of the few, the vindictive Aristocracy, 
to frustrate the wishes of the people ; 
and especially of that portion of the 
people which, in trying times, rallies 
under the standard of republicanism. 
This party now knows that ANDREW 
JACKSON, ns was THOMAS JEFFER¬ 
SON in the great contest of 1800, is 
the candidate of the Republican party; 
and hence the desire to amalgamate 
with the Aristocracy a sufficient num¬ 
ber from the republican ranks, to place 
the power in their hands. Hence the 
desperate efforts of Mr. Adams, Mr. 
Clay, Mr. Webster and their friends, to 
destroy old political distinctions, in¬ 
viting men of all parties to their staad- 
ard, calling in the aid of sectional preju¬ 
dice, and on all unprincipled men, to 
form an union assimilating to that form¬ 
ed by Aaron Burr twenty-eight years 
ago. 

Despairing of all means to prevent 
a choice, as was prevented four years 
ago, and aided by the immense means 


27 


and patronage in their hands, the most character of Andrew Jackson as an 
daring- and desperate efforts have been honest man, as a pure and incorruptible 
made, are now making-, and will con- patriot, as a prudent, discreet and sa- 
tinue to be made by the Coalition, to gacious statesman, cannot be shaken— 
prevent the election of ANDREW knowing that a great major!ty of the 
JACKSON. Believing that the great people are firmly attached to the prim 
nnss of the people cannot be corrupt- ciples of the revolution—we have full 
ed—believing that calumny has already faith that the cause of the people, the 
done it* worst, and that deception is cause of truth and freedom, WILL PRE- 
fast passing away—believing that the VAIL. 

WILLIAM BADGER, President 
FRANCIS N. FISK, Secretary. 

THOMAS E. SAWYER, , . 

DUDLEY S. PALMER, \ Assistant Secretaries. 

Concord , June 12, 1823. 


NEW-HAMRSHIRE ELECTORAL TICKET. 

- —.— - v 

[.Election first Monday of November, 1828.] 

JOHN HARVEY, of Northwood, 
BENNING M. BEAN, of Moultonboro*, 
WILLIAM PICKERING, of Concord , 
JESSE BOWERS, of Dunstable, 
AARON MATSON, of Stoddard, 
JONATHAN NYE, of Claremont, 
STEPHEN P. WEBSTER, of Haverhill, 
MOSES WHITE, of Lancaster . 





APPENDIX 


(JVVe Jl. p. 14.) 

It is well known that the Democratic Press 
is now resorted to as the organ of the coali¬ 
tion prints^ The National-Intelligencer has 
descended to vouchsafe for its credibility, and 
the National Journal is ready to certify to its 
statements. That paper, during the late 
canvas--, was opposed to the election of Mr. 
Adams, and published the following : 

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS’ POLITICAL 

integrity. 

44 During the pendency of the last Presi¬ 
dential election, which resulted in an infa¬ 
mous intrigue and unprincipled Coalition , 
against the will and rights of the people, a 
-writer in the American Statesman, printed in 
Mr. Adams’ native state, Massachusetts, mode 
in an article signed ‘ 4 One of the People,” a 
most serious charge against it. This charge 
-was in the following terms : 

44 In the spring of 1807, he presided at the 
Federal Caucus, which nominated Caleb 
Strong, (of Bulwabk memory,) for Gov¬ 
ernor, in opposition to the other candidate.— 
About the same time, at the table of an illus¬ 
trious citizen, now no more, he lamented the 
fearful progress of the democratic party*and 
of its principles, and declared that 44 He had 
long meditated the subject, and had become 
convinced, that the only method by which 
the democratic party could be destroyed, was 
by joining with it, and urging it on with the 
utmost energy to the completion of its views, 
whereby toe result would prove so ridicu¬ 
lous and so ruinous to the country, that the 
people would be led to despise the princi¬ 
ples, and t* condemn the effects, of demo¬ 
cratic policy, ai.d then (said he,) we may have 
a form, of government better suited to the genius 
and disposit ion of our count ry , than the present 
constitution .” 

4 ‘ Some of the guests who heard that de¬ 
claration, and have frequently repeated it, are 
%till living. Let the kennel presses, therefore, 
take care how they deny its aulhority.” 

Thin charge having been made, the Na¬ 
tional Journal , as it was generally understood 
edited by Mr. Adams, ai that time, and then 
just established to electioneer lor him, at¬ 
tempted a denial; but, in what manner was 
this attempt made ? It was not done with the 
frankness of honesty and the boldness of in¬ 
nocence. It was not denied that witnesses 
could be produced to prove this charge 
against Mr. Adams. But a feeble, impotent 
attempt, by way of laying an anchor to the 
wind,ward , and denoting the consciousness of 
guilt , was made to argue against its probabili¬ 
ty. However, the Statesman and the other 
papers who had repeated this, charge, were 
called upon for their authority, about the lime 
ikaf ike hat lie was over , IIoratiQ Townsend* 


Esq. a gentleman of character, the Clerk of 
the Judicial Court of ti e stale, for the coun¬ 
ty of Norfolk, and the neighbor and friend 
of Mr. Adams, was x named as one, who had 
heard these declarations, and had often rela¬ 
ted them. It was also stated by the editors 
of the Statesman, that they had been informed 
that these declarations were made at the ta¬ 
ble of the late Chief Justice Parsons, then the 
great leader of the Ftderal party in Massa¬ 
chusetts-.—What was the next step to this 
business ? Mr. Townsend was a friend of Mr. 
Adams, disposed t<> do everything, which, in 
conscience , he coukl do, to help bis cause, 
and he gives his certificate or affidavit,' which 
was published in vindication of Mr. Adams’ 
innocence. Here it is : 

41 Norfolk , ss. ^ Dedham, Nov. 6th, 1824. 

44 1, Horatio Townsend, Clerk of the Su¬ 
preme Judicial Court, and ol the Court of 
Common Pleas, &c. for this county, having 
this day heard read to me, the article in the 
American Statesman aud City Register of this 
date, headed 44 Explanatory,” hereby make 
solemn oath, have no recollection of ever hav¬ 
ing dined at the table ol the Honorable Tke- 
ophilus Parsons, in company with Mr. John 
Quincy Adauis, nor do l belie 1 !e that 1 ever 
did, nor do 1 recoiled or believe, that 1 ever 
met Mr. Adams in company with the late 
Chief Justice Parsons at any time subsequent 
to my leaving Mr. Parsons’ office, as a stu¬ 
dent, in the spring of 1783. 

HORATIO TOWNSEND.” 

Now, in the name of common sense, what 
does this testimony of Mr. Adams’ own wit¬ 
ness amount to ? Docs he deny that be ever 
heard bis fiiend, Mr. Adam*:, make these de¬ 
clarations ? No. He makes no such denial; 
but contents himself merely with saying that 
he does not recollect dining at Judge Parsons’ 
table with Mr. Adams, or meeting Mr. Adam3 
in company with Judge Parsons lor g long 
period of time. This is the head and front 
of this affidavit; and make the most of it, it 
only renders it a little uncertain whether these 
declarations were made at the table of Judge 
Parsons , or that of some other Federal leader, 
with whom Mr. Adams was at that lime in 
close communion , conspiring ihe destruction 
of the Republican cause\ If Mr. Townsend, 
who was so ready to give this affidavit, on the 
very day that he first learned that he was na¬ 
med as a witness to these declarations , could, 
consistently with truth, have denied that he 
heard Mr. Adams make them, would he not 
have done so ? Every man of common sense 
answers this question. John B. Derby, Esq, 
a Counsellor at Law, of Norfolk, and son-in- 
law of Mr. Townsend, and the Horn James. 
Richardson, a Counsellor at Law of that 
County, also gave the following affidavit an$ 
certificate, wrhich were published i 


AFFIDAVIT. 

11 1, John B. Derby, of Dedham, late of 
Medfield, in the county of Norfolk, of law¬ 
ful age, testify and say, that one evening in 
the summer of 1820, being at the house of 
Horatio Townsend, Esq. of Dedham, con¬ 
versing with said Towns* nd on the political 
character of John Quincy Adams, and object¬ 
ing to Mr. Adams on the ground of his deser¬ 
tion of Federal principles, said Townsend as¬ 
serted, that jyjr. Adorns was in heart a feder¬ 
alist, althoug aclti g with the democratic par¬ 
ty: and f <r pro t thereof, stated, that he (Mr. 
Townsend,) being, many years before, in 
compauv with Mr. Adams and other distin- 
guisbed Federalists, previous to Mr. Adams’ 
political conversion, I think at the late Chief 
Justice Parsons’, Mr, Adams speaking of the 
increasing power of the Democratic party, 
used in subs a u-e, the expressions attributed 
to him by li One of the People,” published 
in the State-man of Jalv last. Afterwards, 
in the spring, l think, of 1822, the said Town¬ 
send beiog at my house, n Medfield, on my 
again introducing the discussion of the same 
subject, repeated to me the same declara¬ 
tions of Mr. Adams’ in similar language. 
That John Quinsy Adams made such obser¬ 
vations, I do ,ot know , but 1 was constrained 
to believe that he made them , by the frequent 
and confident assertions of Mr. Townsend. 
That 'Mr. Tow nsc-nd said in "ubstar.ee what 
I have here stated, is confirmed by the Hon. 
James Richardson, who says that on hearing 
the extract from 44 One of the People” read 
to him, he immediately recollected having 
heard Mr. Townsend so express himself in 
conversation once at said Townsend’s house, 
and also at his office, and that it occurred to 
him before he [Mr. R.] knew that he was 
designated as one of those to whom the above 
statements of Mr. Townsend were addressed. 

JOHN B. DERBY.” 

The pieces signed 44 One of the People,” 
are written with so much talent, it is hardly 
necessary for me to add, I am not the author. 

44 Norfolk, ss. Nov . 8, 1824. 

44 Then the above-named John B. Derby 
declared, on oath, that the above statement, 
subscribed by him was true. 

ERASTUS WORTHINGTON, 

Justice of the PeacsN 

On the back of the affidavit is the folloiving 
certificate. 

44 Dedham, Nov. 8th, 1824. 

44 I have read the part of the within affida¬ 
vit which relates to myself, and declare it to 
be substantially correct. 

JAMES RICHARDSON.” 

This is the evidence ; and in the court of 
common sense, where the people are the 
judges, its effect is irresistible. If it needed 
confirmation, it may be found in John Quincy 
Adams’ Inaugural speech, where he covertly 
denounced the Democratic party, and its ties 
and its badge, his appointment of Rufus King, 
a minister of his father in the reign of terror, 
tq the Court of St, James, in hb speedy re¬ 


lapse fo his early faith , the most dangerous 
doctrines of the Federal party, in josiah 
Quincy’s exulting toast at a feast in honor of 
hn shameful elevation to the Presidency, a- 
sainst the will of the people— 44 The polit¬ 
ical regeneration: those who fell with the 
first Adams, rise with the second ,” and Mr. 
Adams’ speech in Fanueil Hall, in Bostob. 
In that speech, Mr. Adams pronounced thi 3 
same Josiah Quincy, who moved without a 
single vote to support his own, the impeach¬ 
ment of Thomas Jefferson ; who threatened 
on the floor of the House of Representatives, 
that N. England must have her way, peacea¬ 
bly if she could , forcibly if she must ; who 
was the author of the infamous resolution of 
the senate of Massachusetts, lately expung¬ 
ed from the records as a disgrace to the state, 
that, it was unbecoming a moral and religious 
people to rtjoice in our glorious victories dur¬ 
ing the late tear ; who, three years since, in 
the same place, the cradle of liberty, at a 
public meeting, to aid the election of the 
Hartford Convention candidate ., for Govern¬ 
or, declared the Democratic party, to be 
* l tiie scum of the pot;” to be the icorthy 
representative of the Josiah Quincy of the 
revolution. SO MUCH FOR JOHN QUIN¬ 
CY ADAMS’ POLITICAL INTEGRITY. 


(Note B. p. 14.) 

Letter of John Quincy Adams , addressed tc 
Lnhtt Harris , Esq. Charge d' Affairs of the 
United States, St. Petersburgh. 

Ghent, 1 6th Nov. 1814. 

Dear Sir, 

I have just now the pleasure of receiving 
your favor of 14-25 October, and am happy 
to learn from yourself, the confirmation of* 
your recoverr ; of which, and of your ill¬ 
ness, I had a few days since been informed 
by a letter from my wife. 

Near the close of the month of August, if 
was our expectation that the negotiation here 
would have terminated in a very few days 
It soon after became apparent that the inten 
tion of the British government was to keep 
it open, and to shape its demands according 
to the course of events in Europe and in 
America. The policy still continues to per¬ 
vade the British cabinet. Nothing decisive 
is yet known to them to have occurred ei¬ 
ther at Vienna, or in the other hemisphere, 
and accordingly they temporize still. Un¬ 
less something should happen to fix their wa¬ 
vering pretentions and purposes, it will be¬ 
long to the American government alone to 
bring our business to a point. This on their 
part would certainly be an honorable and 
spirited course ot conduct, and I should have 
no doubt of its being pursued, if the de¬ 
sire OF PEACE WERE N»T PARAMOUNT TO 
EVERY OTHER CONSIDERATION. 

The occurrences of the war in America 
have been of a diversified nature. Success 
and defeat have alternately attended the 
arra9 of both belligerents, and hitherto have 
left them nearly where they were at the com¬ 
mencement of the campaign. It has been 



30 


f 


on our part merely defensive, with the single 
exception of the taking of Fort L ie, with 
which it began. The battles of Chip¬ 
pewa and of Bridgewater—the defence of 
Fort Erie, on the 15th of August, and the na¬ 
val action upon Lake Chatuplain on the 11th 
of September, have redounded to our glory 
as well as to our advantage — while the loss 
of Washington, the capitulations of Alexan¬ 
dria and of Wpshingt' n County, Massachu¬ 
setts, and of Nantucket, have been more dis¬ 
graceful to us than injurious. The offence 
of Baltimore has given us little more 

TO BE PROUD OF THAN THE DEMONSTRATION 
AGAINST IT HAS AFFORDED TO OUR ENEMY. 
Trevost’s RETREAT FROM PlAttsburg HAS 
BEEN MORE DISGRACEFUL TO THEM TRAN 
HONORABLE TO US, AND WELLINGTON’S VET¬ 
ERANS, THE FIRE EATER BriSBRANE AND 
THE FIRE-BRAND CoCKBURN, HAVE KEPT 
THE RAWEST OF OUR MILITIA IN COUNTE¬ 
NANCE, BY THEIR EXPERTNESS IN THE ART 
of RUNNIN , away. The general issue ot 
the campaign is yet to come, and there is 

TOO MUCH REASON TO APPREHEND THAT IT 
WILL BE UNFAVOURABLE To OUR S IDE. 

Left,by a concurrence of circumstances un¬ 
exampled in the annals of ihe world, to strug¬ 
gle alone and friendless against the whole 
COLOSSAL FOWEROF tREAT BRITAIN -fight¬ 

ing in reaiiiy against her for the cause of 
all Europe, with all Europe coldly looking 
on, basely bound not to raise in our lavor a 
helping baud, secretly wishing us success, 
and not daring so much as to cheer us in 
the strife, what could be expected trom the 
firs; furies of this unequal conflict, but dis¬ 
aster and discomfb ure to us. Divided a- 
MONG OURSELVES MURE IN PASSION’S THAN 
INTEREST, WITH HALF r l HE NATION S l.D 
BY THEIR PR EJUD1CIES AND THEIR IGNO¬ 
RANCE TO OUR ENEMY, WITH A FEEBLE 
AND PENURIOUS GOVERNMENT, WITH FIVE 
FRIGATES FoR A NAVY, AND SCARCELY TIVE 
EFFICIENT REGIMENTS FOR AN ARMY, UoW 
GAN IT BE EXPECTED THAT WE SHOULD RE¬ 
SIST THE MASS OF FORCE WHICH THAT GIGAN¬ 
TIC POWER HAS COLLECTED TO CRUSH US AT 
A BLOW ? 

This too is the moment which he has cho¬ 
sen to break through all the laws of war ac¬ 
knowledged and respected by civilized na¬ 
tions. Under the false pretence of retalia 
tion Cochrane has formally declared the de¬ 
termination to destroy and lay waste all the 
towns on the seacoast. which may be assaila¬ 
ble. The ordinary'horrors of war are mild¬ 
ness and mercy in comparison with what 
British vengeauce and malice have denoun¬ 
ced upon us. We must go through it all.— 

I trust in God we shall rise in triumph over 
it allbut the first shock is the most terri¬ 
ble part of the process, nnd it is that which 
we are now enduring. 

The Transit will probably sail about the 
beginning of next month from Bordeaux. 
Your dispatches by Mr. Forbes will go in 
her, if we get them in time. I have 


heard nothing from Count Nesselrode. The 
Congress at Vienna has s« arce’y vet opened : 
— but all the important arrangements are 
made, and there is no doubt that the termin¬ 
ation will be pacific. 

1 am, with regard and consideration, dear 
Sir, your very humble and obedient servant, 
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 


(JY ole Cp 22.) 

Extract from the speech of Hon John S. 
Barbour., wdt w the House of Iltprtscnlcr- 
tives during the late session. 
u it is a fac, susceptible of the plainest 
demonstration, that the disbursements of pub¬ 
lic money under like circumstance s, and tor 
the same objects ot expenditun , by the pre¬ 
sent administration, have < xc» eded all for¬ 
mer example. And it is not upon untenable 
ground that I make this opinion. Arith¬ 
metical calculations, res’ing upon responsi¬ 
ble reports from the Treasury Department, 
carry my mind to this c»nfident conclusion. 
Whatever causes may arise tor diversi’y of 
opinion upon other topics of inquiry, none 
can here exist. ; tor the estimate of dollars 
and rents, by the plaio use oi figures, cannot 
conduct us into enor, without the certainty 
ot immediate and palpable detection. In 
the view that I look of this subject, my at- 
Dn.ion was fixed to the comparative esti¬ 
mate of appropriation and expenditure for 
the three years of this administration, com¬ 
pared with that of the three years umnedi- 
arely preceding it ; and it presents th.e fol¬ 
lowing results : 

Current Expenditures , exclusive of Military 
Pensions and the payments to the Public 
Debt ; 

1822, $7,879,444 11 

1823, ' 8.003,568 C7 

1824, 8.939.449 56 


Total, $24,822,459 74 

Current Expenditures , exclusive of Military 
Pensions and the payments to the Public 
Debt : 

1825, $10 249,550 13 

1826, 11,505.702 44 

1827, 11,752,515 61 


Total, $33,507,767 18 

Deduct three years amount 
of preceding Administra¬ 
tion, 24,822,459 74 

Showing an increase of dis¬ 
bursement in the present 
administration, of $8,685,307 44 

“ I have omitted any notice oi the charges ~ 
upon the Treasury for the public debt and 
military pensions, because the payments to 
these objects cannot, by any dialetic ingenu¬ 
ity, be made ihe theme of eulogy to any ad¬ 
ministration. The ext inguishing action of 

the sinking fund upon the public debt, can¬ 
not be set down to the credit of the Execu¬ 
tive ; it results from pre-existing law. Thu 
excess of accumulator in the surplus funrff 


\ 






31 


by operation ofthe same law, disgorges itself 
into the /inking fund, and becomes in like 
manner sacred to the public encasement. 
The app r opiiations for military pensions, I 
have also excluded, because this is a dis¬ 
bursement like wise resting upon definite and 
uncontrollable cause*, and i? in no instance 
to be affected by administrative prodigality 
©r economy.” 

From the United States ’ Telegraph. 

In the Richmond Enquirer of the 23d of 
May, there is a letter of great length, over 
the name of Mr. Ichabod Bartlett. Ari allu¬ 
sion t so much cf in';’ remarks in the House 
of Representatives as touched the public ex¬ 
penditure is made in the following terms : 
44 Mow much ot the speech referred to, was 
44 left 44 uncontradicted,” I do not say, but 
44 very much, which was stated by the gen- 
44 tleman, upon Ms resolution, concerning the 
44 disbursing officers of the g vernment, seem- 
44 ed to me, so far a3 records could have done 
44 it, to have been very fairly disproved 

I read this production with sincere regret ; 
not only for the apparent discourtesy of man¬ 
ner towards me, hut for the manifest unfair¬ 
ness which pervades it Nor s-hould l feel 
the obligation to reply to it, but that the no¬ 
tice which Mr. Rives has publicly bestowed 
upon Mr Bartlett and his speech, has cloth¬ 
ed both him and it, with an importance, which 
may seem to demand it. What l did say, 
was rioty and cannot, be disproved. The mem- 
Be*-troin New-Hampshire did not bring to his 
aid in that discussion, any other 44 records” 
than some two or three acts of Congross. 
The estimates which I presented to the House 
in that debate, rest upon “ irrefragable ” evi¬ 
dence. The deductions submitted, were 
then, and still are, incontrovertible .” 

I apprehend from a remark made the pre¬ 
ceding day, that the accuracy of the v«ews 
I in’ended to present, might be drawn into 
question; I carried with me into the House, 
the Treasury Reports ; the replies »'f that 
Department to interrogatories, propounded 
by the Committee on the public expenditures; 
the several acts of Congress making appro¬ 
priations lor those ytars, embraced by the 
comparative investigation ; and my own tab¬ 
ular statements drawn out of, and sustained 
by these documents.—These were read to 
the House, and particularly to the gentleman 
from New Hampshire, who was earnestly 
pressed to take the tables that I had prepar¬ 
ed, or copies of them, with the official docu¬ 
ments, that he might detect atfd expose any 
error, that the severest test might disclose. 
He was told that these *«*»:mat.es 44 challeng¬ 
ed and defied his scrutiny.” Mr. Bartlett 
did not then take up this proposition , and 
at this late day, in the last hour of the ses¬ 
sion, he has possessed the public, with a long 
tissop of misrepresentation, elaborated with 
great art, and tinged with disingenuousness. 
It became my duty, as a member of the Com¬ 
mittee on the Public Expenditures, to look 
into the Treasury disbursements, I examin¬ 


ed those subjects with much cere, and sub¬ 
jected the results to repeated inquiries. My 
own calculations, and those presented by 
Mr. Rives, I am confidently persuaded, will 
stand any fair scrutiny, however rigid, by 
which they may be tested. They are sus¬ 
tained by the evidence that I have mention¬ 
ed ; they are corroborated bv 'he Report of 
the Committee upon Retrenchment. ; they 
are coincident with the tabular comparison, 
communicated by the Treasury department 
to tVie Committee of Ways and Means, and 
which was appended to the late report of 
that Committee—and lastly they are accu- 
raie and true, although contradicted by Mr. 
Ichabod Bartlett. 

My purpose was to have said what I have 
written, upon the floor of the House of Rep- 
re°entatives, in the presence of Mr. Bartlett, 
but at the instant of breaking tip the session, 
leavfWto do so was withheld, and it was in- 
inconqjstent with the orders of the House, to 
have done so, without leave. Duty and 
propriety demanded of me this early notice 
of the subject in the papers, and 1 was anx¬ 
ious that Mr. B.«should be informed at once, 
of ray intention to do so. Before the mem¬ 
bers left the Hall,.I addressed the subjoined 
letter to Mr. Bartlett, and General Floyd’s 
note shews why he did not receive it. 

J. S. BARBOUR. 


DEPARTMENT OF STATE. 

[Extract from the Report of the Com on Retrenchment.] 
It appears from the statements contained 
in this letter, (from the secretary of state,) 
tha* the expenditures of the state depart¬ 
ment, for the various objects entrusted to its 
management, were, during the three last 
years of the late administration, and the 
three years just elapsed of the present ad¬ 
ministration, as follows, to wit: 


Last administration. 

1822, $173,879 51 

1823, 314,868 59 

1824, 270,731 27 


$759,279 34 


Present administration 

1825, $306,731 .74 

1826, . 255,296 20 

1827, 287,463 42 


$849,491 30 
7 b 9,279 34 


Q^T’Making the expenditure of) 

the present exceed that of \ $90,212 02 
the last administration, by ) 

From reference to the document, marked 
B. which accompanied, and is referred to in 
the secretary’s letter, and from which his 
statements are compiled, it appears that, be¬ 
sides the contingent expenses of the depart¬ 
ment, and the general expenses of foreign in¬ 
tercourse, including the intercourse with the 
Barbary powers, and the relief and protec¬ 
tion of distressed American seamen, there are 
included in the amounts given by him, aa 
above, three other items, depending upon 
wholly different principles in regard to any 
discretion.ary control of the department over 
them, and which ought not, therefore, in the 
opinion of the committee, to enter into a com¬ 
parison like that Instituted by the secretary. 







The three items alluded fo are, thu treaty 
with Spain of the 27>h February, 1819, the 
sixth and sevenih articles of the treaty of 
Gnent and the first .article of the treaty of 
•Ghent.. These are subjeais of expense grow¬ 
ing necessarily out of the obligation of in* 
lernational compacts, and not to he affect¬ 
ed, in any way, by the discretion ot the ex¬ 
ecutive or any of its officers. The first item, 
■particularly, being the expense incident to 
what has been commonly called the Florida 
board of commissioners, whose existence and 
functions terminated under the last adminis¬ 
tration, and the whole burden of whose sup¬ 
port, amounting to $63,114 3t, fell upon 
that administration, (excepting only the small 
sum of $1,125, paid under the present,) can¬ 
not, it seems to the Committee, upon any 
principle of propriety, be brought into the 
comparison. Taking these items out of the 
comparison, the account,.between Up late 
and the present administration, in r^ard t<=» 
disbursements, over which the stdte depart¬ 
ment has a discretionary control, will then 

stand thus : # 

Last adminis. Present admin. 

The amounts stated 

above are $759,279 34 $8.49,4 91 36 
Deduct expenses 
under treaty with 
Spain , 6th and 
7th arts, treaty of 
Ghent; and 1st 

art. do. 126,603 97 71,679 63 


632,675 37 777,811 73 
632,675 37 


of 1825, however* were for the use of the 
present administration—they came to the 
hands of the present administration, and they 
have been expended by the present adminis¬ 
tration. In this view, the committee think 
the appropriations of 1825 "ought clearly to 
be carried to the account of the present, and 
not of the last administration ; and even if 
the question were, who is responsible for the 
justness and propriety of those appropriations, 
the committee are slil of opinion that the,same 
classification would be correct : for they find 
that the appropriations of 1825, for the str- 
vice of the state department, were, in fact, 
made upon estimates furnished by the pres¬ 
ent Chief Magistrate, (then ' Secretary of. 
State) contemplating and providing lor the 
expenses of a new administration, of winch 
there was every pr babilirv he was to be the 
head. Putting the yt-a r 1825 to the account 
of the present aqmi listration, the 'compara¬ 
tive statement ot appropriations lor the. ser¬ 
vice of the state dtpartoient, as collected 
from the document marked C. which accom-, 
panied, and is referred to in the Secretary’s 
letter, will then stand thus: 


1822, 

1823, 

1824, 


$239,450 

154,300 

309,350 

$703,600 


1825, 

1826, 
1827, 


$336,050 
350.932 
290 550 

$977,532 
. 703,600 


{r^f“DifFerencc against Mr. Ad¬ 
ams, " $145,136 36 

This difference the committee believe to 
..to# the true result of a comparison made upon 
correct principles, between the late and the 
■present administrations, as to the expendi¬ 
tures with which the state department is 
connected. 

The committee will now advert to some 
views which the Secretary of State has pre- 

* sented in his letter, in relation to the appro** 

* priations for the service of that department. 
Although, in- the comparison exhibited by 
him, of the expenditures of that department, 
under the late and present administration, he 
puts the year 1825 to the account of the pres¬ 
ent administration, yet, iif the view present¬ 
ed by him of the appropriations for the ser¬ 
vice of the two administrations, he transfers 
the appropriations of 1825 to ..the account of 
the last administration. The appropriations 


O^pDifference against Mr, Adams $27Sf,*l , 32 

The Secretary of State refers to the dimin¬ 
ished amount of appropriations for the ser¬ 
vice of that department, during the present 
year, which, it seems, is only $89,500.' ’But 
it is proper to add iliat this diminished appro¬ 
priation fi'r the present year, does, by no 
means, imply a diininuhod expenditure du¬ 
ring the present ye u\ In addition to the 
sum appropriated, there are large amounts in 
the hands of the department, consisting of 
balances of former appropriations still appli¬ 
cable to the service of the present year, and 
as such included in the estimates for the sup¬ 
port of the government dur-ng the present 
year. These balances, for the various ob¬ 
jects under the control of the slate depart¬ 
ment, 4re, given in the document marked C. 
(which has already been referred to as ac¬ 
companying. the Secretary’s letter) and will 
be fofind to amount to the sum of 528,273 
dollars, which, added to the sum of 89,500 
dollars recently appropriated, forms an ag¬ 
gregate of 317,823 dollars at the disposal of 
the state department for the service of the 
present year, * 


(TWO SHEETS.) 









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